As the owner of four furry (here’s one) felines, I am grateful to the responsiveness of the market to the needs of pet owners. Some products are frivolous, some essential; many are technological marvels.

It is a testament to the responsiveness of technological innovation to human needs that we can treat our pets so well. The same strides in pharmaceutical technology that have allowed doctors to suppress organ rejection in human transplant patients, for example, now provide the means to keep a highly allergic dog, cat, or horse from literally tearing its hide off by scratching and biting at itchy, allergic skin. Before the availability of products like Neoral and Atopica, animal owners were forced to sedate or destroy affected animals, or to use steroids that could cause irreversible damage to other organs.

Medications aren’t the only area of animal care that benefit from technology designed to assist humans. A recent advance in prosthetic devices, first tested in humans, will allow a cat born with two front legs only, to have a third leg attached using a new biotechnological process. The newsworthy kitty, George Bailey, already has the initial piece of his new “leg” inserted into the bone where a normal leg should be. If medical expectations are realized, George will become something of a bionic kitty—the bone is expected to grow and integrate with the holding pin that will anchor the external, spring-steel leg device.

Without technological intervention, the cat would have dragged around on two legs (chances of survival nil), or been hitched to a back-end cart or external device (which the owners tried). The bio-integral technique has been used to successfully attach an artificial thumb in a human, and has great prospects for other human and animal use.

There are also more frivolous benefits. Thanks to technology developed for human needs, animals can now “enjoy” automated bathing via the Pet Spa, colloquially known as the Mutt-O-Matic. No, this does not mean you can throw your dog, cat, and hamster into the home washer (they obviously must be separated), but the Spa is described as a wash and dry chamber, more like a car wash, and will fit a dog up to 100 lbs. Whether it will contain a 100-lb. dog who is determined to exit through the glass is another question.

The hi-tech pet-wash Spa is lacking in some respects. It will not tie a colorful bandana around your dog’s neck, and cats don’t seem to like it much—big surprise!

General anesthesia for the cat (another human-tested product), and the equivalent of a bomb squad outfit (technology again!) for the owner should cover any latent kitty protests on that pet-wash score. Failing that, a set of multi-hued Soft Paws claw covers, and a safe distance, will get the owner through any lingering hostility to automated washing. According to the Soft Paws ads, “you will not believe how easy it is to use these,” and I take them at their word. Trying to super-glue individual vinyl claw covers to a live animal with knives on its feet, without assistance, must be seen to be believed.

Two points become clear from the advances in animal care now available to consumers in the market:

1) Technology has advanced human productivity and wealth so much that, as pet owners and animal keepers, we can afford to improve the health and well being of our pets, even if to a frivolous degree. Less than a century ago it would have been unthinkable, even suicidal, to divert so much wealth and leisure to these uses.
2) In so much as humans benefit from technology and products tested on animals, there is also a high degree of reciprocity in this, as animals now benefit from human-tested technologies.

As long as Congress doesn’t mandate a vertical spin-cycle for the Pet Spa, we can have clean, touch-free dog washing. We’ll also be good to go when we are finally ready to hitchhike the galaxy with those prosthetic electronic thumbs.