The pet you adopted for company has a life beyond the comfort it gives you.

An animal brought home to ease loneliness does that job well, and it is easy to let the relationship be defined entirely by what it provides. But the animal has its own preferences, boredom, fears and needs that have nothing to do with your evenings. Company flows both ways or it becomes a kind of use.

Watch your animal this week for something that is about them rather than you: what they choose when free, what they avoid. Then give them more of it, even when it does not include you.