A pet deserves room to rest without being made available for everyone’s affection.

An animal in a busy household can end up permanently on duty. Every person who passes wants a moment, and each moment is small, but stacked together they mean the creature is rarely left alone long enough to properly sleep. Because animals mostly tolerate this, the cost is invisible until it shows up as irritability, hiding, or illness. Affection given on the human schedule is still a demand.

Give your animal one place where nobody follows and enforce it, especially with visitors and children. Watch for the signals that mean enough rather than waiting for a bite or a scratch. Let some hours be theirs.