Casey Merritt
The writer behind The Companion
I write The Companion, the Animal Obsessed blog.
The first animal that was mine was a dog named Bristle, a shepherd mix my mother brought home from a county shelter in a cardboard carrier clearly meant for a cat. She was nine when we got her and she had opinions about doors. For four years I did my homework on the floor, because that was where she was. When she died I was thirteen and I did not handle it well, and what helped was going back to the same shelter on Saturdays to walk dogs nobody had picked yet. That is when this stopped being a hobby. I have not had an apartment, a job, or a phone background since that was not partly about an animal.
I am not a veterinarian. I am not a trainer, a behaviorist, or a nutritionist, and I hold no credentials in any of those fields. This blog does not give veterinary advice. If your animal is limping, off its food, drinking strangely, or acting unlike itself, that is a question for your vet, not for a shirt company's blog. If your dog is guarding food or your cat has stopped using the box, that is a question for a certified trainer or a veterinary behaviorist. I say it here and I say it in the posts, because the internet is full of people happy to guess at your animal's health and I would rather not be one of them.
What this blog covers
Living with animals, and the culture that has grown up around loving them. Why the same six dog names keep winning. What people actually do on the first night with a new cat. Gift guides for the friend whose whole personality is her greyhound, including things we do not sell. And the stories behind the shirts, most of which started as a joke somebody made about their own animal.
What you will not find here
Veterinary or medical advice, dosages, diagnoses, or opinions about your animal's symptoms.
How I work
I read more than I need to, I talk to people who have actually done the thing, and I check every product detail against the catalogue before it goes up. When I am not sure, I say so. When I get something wrong, I fix the post and leave a note saying I fixed it.
I use AI tools the way I use a filing cabinet and a spellchecker. They organize my notes and tidy up rough drafts, and they are useful and unreliable in roughly equal measure. Everything they touch gets checked. Nothing goes out under my name that I have not read start to finish and decided I stand behind.
Three Casey actually wears
These three sit at the front of the drawer. They are what I grab when I am not thinking about it.
Treat Dealer Tee
I wear this one to the vet's office and to the dog park and it gets a laugh in both places. Mine has faded to a color that is no longer black and I like it better that way.
Meowdy Cat Tee
A bad pun on a white tee, and I have never once regretted it. The cat who inspired it has never done a single thing on request.
Plants. Dogs. Coffee. Tee
Three words with a period after each, which is roughly the shape of my mornings. It is the shirt I put on when I am sure nobody will photograph me, and then somebody photographs me.
Three questions Casey gets a lot
Cat person or dog person?
Dog first, historically, and then a cat named Waffle moved in and made that complicated. I have both now. The split is mostly fake and it only tells you which animal got to you first. People who insist they are strictly one or the other usually change their mind the second the wrong species falls asleep on them.
What do I get someone who is obsessed with their dog?
Not a mug. Whatever they have with their dog on it, they already own three of. What lands is either something they use every day without thinking, or something specific enough that it could only be about their animal. A shirt works because they wear it to the grocery store and a stranger asks about the dog, and that conversation is the actual gift.
Why shirts about animals?
Because people want to say it out loud and there is no smooth way to bring it up. Nobody opens with how much they love their cat. A shirt says it for you, and then somebody in line says me too, and that is the whole thing. Part of every order also helps fund food, shelter, and medical care for rescue animals, so it does something besides start conversations.