I was chatting to the staff in the vet clinic the other day about the way we think and feel about our pets and one doctor jokingly said, “Pets are the new kids and plants are the new pets.” That got me thinking about how our relationships with our “furbabies” have changed over the years. Are pets really the new kids?

So, I started looking around for evidence to test this theory.

I went to grab a coffee at a local coffee house and noticed that they had a “Pet friendly” sign on the door which encouraged patrons to enjoy a beverage with their beloved pets.

I ordered a Latte, but I could have ordered a “Puppuchino” or a caffeine-free cup of frothy milk for my dog.

Sitting in the corner of the room was a well-dressed lady eating an ice cream with an adorable brown eyed Labrador at her feet.

Periodically she leant forward and let her eager dog lick the ice cream, then carried on eating it herself.

A few days later, I went to the hairdressers and was chatting to my stylist about her pets.

She said she was very happy to spend her Sundays cooking beautiful home prepared meals, made with human-grade produce for her two dogs, but found it a bit of a chore to cook through the week for her husband.

We had a great laugh about it. She also told me she had recently put some dog friendly purple hair dye onto one of her clients’ dogs’ ears, so she matched her owners’ purple highlights.

I must say, they both looked very fetching in the photos.

At the vet clinic we regularly write health certificates for dogs and cats to be able to travel with their owners.

Despite the pet’s seat on the plane often costing more than their parents, the investment is worth it to have their fur baby with them for the trip.

It seems that travelling with pets, even for short breaks, has become totally the norm.

You rarely pass through an airport these days without seeing pets in transit.

Doggy daycare is the canine equivalent of nursery for children. A place where owners can leave their pups to be entertained and exercised, whilst they are at work.

The pups socialise with their friends and even create artwork for their owners in the form of paw print paintings. Their humans must be so proud.

I know of many clients who throw birthday parties for their pets, some even renting out space so that they can romp and play with their doggy friends.

Their owners bake cakes and have party hats and even hire a photographer to capture the scene.

One lady told me she had a birthday party for their cat and invited over several other cats belonging to her friends.

Needless to say, this didn’t go over as well as she had hoped, but they did get some great photos of cats in costumes for the family photo album.

One of our doctors admits that her cats have their own room in the house lovingly called “Kitty Paradise”, but despite this bespoke creature comfort forward room being decked out with everything a cat could possibly need to live their best feline life, she admits that they still sleep on her bed every night and nudge her husband out of the way.

“The cats own the house and we just live there to serve them” seems to be a recurrent theme.

So, I came to the conclusion that for some people pets are the new kids and that’s OK, as they fill a much needed void and allow their loving owners to care for their every need and where’s the harm in that?

But does it mean I should maybe think about starting to save up for my guinea pig’s university education? Or is that just crazy?

• Lucy Richardson graduated from Edinburgh University in 2005. She started CedarTree Vets in August 2012 with her husband, Mark. They live at the practice with their two children, Ray and Stella, and their dog, two cats and two guinea pigs. She is also the FEI national head veterinarian for Bermuda