Re: nothing would surprise me in this day and age.

OH, I agree with you 100% about the loss of moral character and decency in modern American culture these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love animals but lately, within the past decade people have become highly obsessed with their pets and overly anthropomorphic to the point where it’s sickening. If it keeps going at the rate it’s going perhaps such “relationships” will come to be, maybe not excepted as the norm, but consider just another “alternative” in the future.
These days, such "relationships” are slightly hinted at in mainstream media, ( just watch the show “family guy”) where it’s cleverly and indirectly sensationalized as the next hip alternative lifestyle to come out of the closet about. I’ve herd people joke about being in such relationships. And working at a veterinarian, my co-workers and I often wonder about some of the clients (the weird ones) and their pets. Before taking my current job, I worked for my local animal shelter for five years and we came across a case or two involving such animal abuse. It definitely IS going on.