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 News :. Exhibit explores relationship between Americans and their pets
[03.12.2005]

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Walda Wildman looked down at the carved granite gravestone and then at the small plastic casket lined with nylon and lace.

"Oh my God," said Wildman, reading the inscription on the sample cemetery gravestone for Sweet Pea, the dog. "That's just a little over the top."

The casket and gravestone are just two of the over 200 objects and photographs included in a new exhibit chronicling the long-term relationship Americans have had with their animal companions.

"Pets in America: The Story of Our Lives with Animals at Home" officially opens to the public Saturday at the University of South Carolina's McKissick Museum. The exhibit will be on display at McKissick through April 22 and then travel to several other cities nationwide.

The exhibit was created to illustrate people's changing attitudes toward pets, said Katherine Grier, guest curator and Material Culture Studies professor at the University of Delaware's Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.

She said more than 60 percent of American households keep pets.

"I would argue that that fact alone makes it worth studying from a historical perspective," Grier said. "I've discovered that these ordinary items that have survived really do tell the story of the daily routines that don't show up in the historical records in other ways."

Besides the pet casket and gravestone, another artifact that gets a lot of attention is the first bag of commercial kitty litter, she said.

The invention of cat litter in the 1940s enabled people to keep cats indoors, according to information provided in the exhibit. By 1970, Americans owned more cats than dogs.

Bob and Pat Wislinski are self-proclaimed "cat people" who attended a public reception for the exhibit the night before its public opening.

"The reason the exhibit is good is because it rings true," said Bob Wislinski who also serves on the board of the Animal Mission, a local animal humane group. "You go through and can relate to it. You know that what it's saying about our pets and ourselves are true."

Part of the exhibit, dedicated to the history of pet-keeping, describes the work that dogs once performed. A dog treadmill from the 1890s was used to generate energy.

The last part of the exhibit explores the protection of pets.

"We definitely have a long way to go in addressing our treatment of our animals," Wislinski said. "We're constantly having to re-learn how smart animals are, how much they can do for us, and how much we can share together."

The exhibit brought fond memories to Kay Edwards of her dog Dandy, who died in September.

"She was a great dog," Edwards said of Dandy, a golden retriever who was a licensed therapy dog. "I would take her to an Alzheimer's facility every week and it was amazing to see her connection with the patients."

The role of pets is expected to take on more significance as households get smaller and more people live alone, said Lynn Robertson, director of the McKissick Museum.

The exhibit is the first of its kind, she said, and it's important because pets are important to people.

"I tell people about this exhibit and they say 'Let me tell you about this pet I had ... let me tell you about the best cat I had when I was 16,'" Robertson said. "Everyone has a pet story."

"It's not the Mona Lisa, but there are incredibly moving things that are featured in this exhibit."

The exhibit also will travel to sites in Indiana, Michigan, Massachusetts and Illinois.

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