I've got to admit to another 'guilty pleasure' or 'dirty little secret.' I've been collecting real photo postcards [c1905-1915] for about 20 years now featuring people and their pets. These aren't the cutesy studio produced cards, but instead, real people from Dismal, Oklahoma [or wherever] showing off Muffy or Blackie to Aunt Agnes back east. The naive and 'folksy' quality of this practice [which must have truly flourished] really appeals to me. When a handle-bar mustached and derbied gent hold his prized rooster and is proud enough, not only to capture the moment in a photograph, but to share it postally amazes me.
Anyway, cats are probably the most frequently used pet in this category, although as the sentiment on the card below states in a Freudian slip, maybe not always the first choice.
http://home.pcspower.net/amistad/images/cats.jpg
I hope you find this quirky card as amusing as I did.
Enjoy,