Best Paw Forward: The Surprising Role Pets Play in Building Community and Literacy Connections

For many people in America, furry, feathered, and sometimes scaly friends are a vital part of their family unit. According to Forbes Magazine, 66 percent of US households owned a pet in 2024 — up 10 percent from 56 percent in 1988. Moreover, 78 percent of pet owners acquired them during the pandemic — unsurprising, considering how many families were driven into their homes with Zoom and FaceTime as main conduits to the outside world.

Coincidentally, audiobook listening has also increased since the pandemic through the help of free services provided by libraries nationwide, with reportedly 52 percent of US adults (or 137 million) having tuned into the audio literacy medium in 2024.

It is no wonder, then, that pets would be part of our literacy journey as well, often in surprising ways! For instance, the Delta Pet Partners of San Antonio, TX, have a PAWsitive Reading Program they host at various libraries throughout the state, where children ages five to ten are encouraged to read aloud to therapy dogs to help them conquer their fear of public speaking and improve verbal comprehension. Participants can bring a book of their choice or choose one from the library, and expert handlers help the child focus on the therapy dog to decrease any performance anxiety.

Library pets can also do an excellent job of attracting people — particularly children — into the building to help foster a lifelong love of learning and increase a sense of community. According to this article by Libby Life, one can find not just dogs and cats (such as the legendary Dewey of Spencer, IA) but owls and bearded dragons. The nonjudgmental nature of animals resonates with us as humans deeply and can contribute significantly to making libraries safe learning spaces for all walks of life.

Send an email to your Representatives to show your support for libraries!

Pets can also play a unique role in audiobook production, as industry veteran, narrator, and best-selling author Tanya Eby can attest to. Her dogs, Reggie and Pepper, will curl up in the sound booth with her as she is recording, and can be good company in what is often an isolated form of performance art.

But it wasn’t an entirely voluntary choice.

“I tried for years to keep my pups out of the booth, but my dog Reggie experimented with different howls from the floor above, and finally found one that penetrated my recording . . . you could see her voice spike on the WAV forms,” shares Eby. “I haven’t heard her use it for anything else. After that, I let them in as an experiment with strict instructions to be quiet.”

Pepper first reacted to these new rules by letting out a loud burp, which Eby gently reminded him “would not be tolerated.” Now, Pepper and Reggie are content to curl up quietly, knowing full well any collar jangles, loud breathing, or — gasp — barks mean immediate banishment to the living room couch.

Take action today to support libraries!

“It’s all part of the routine now,” shares Eby. “In the morning, I grab my hot water and tell the dogs ‘Let’s go to work!’ and we all happily trot into the booth and go to our assigned places — me to my chair at the microphone, Pepper curled up on her blankie, and Reggie stretched out by the closed door or over my feet.”

Sometimes, breaks are in order, however, particularly when Reggie decides to add his own sound effects during the recording of an “amorous” moment.

“It always makes me laugh when Reggie aggressively licks me when I’m recording a love scene,” says Eby. “If it’s not on the page, it can’t be in the audiobook. Sorry, Reggie.”

Sign the pledge to vote for libraries!

Eby says her setup does not work with every pet — for instance, pugs are known for their audible breathing—but there may be more creatures behind the mike than one might expect.

“I think you’d be surprised at the menagerie of pets that accompany narrators into the booth and are now, quietly, a part of the audiobook world,” adds Eby.

As a full-time remote content developer, my cats, Arthur and Batman, frequently inhabit my workstation. Arthur has made several well-received cameos over Zoom meetings, and my coworkers and I often share pictures of our furry babies (as well as human ones, where applicable) over our Microsoft Teams chat. Pets build community and connection to one another, so perhaps it is unsurprising they feel at home in the most civilized of all free establishments — the library — as well.

BY ELIZABETH ELLIS

Visit www.everylibrary.org to learn more about our work on behalf of libraries.

#librarymarketers: Enjoy this story? Want to use it for your library newsletter, blog, or social media? This article is published under Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International and is free to edit and use with attribution. Please cite EveryLibrary on medium.com/everylibrary.

This work by EveryLibrary is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0