"Hard to shop-for pets" Really???

This thread reminds me of how much things have changed. We had a tuxedo cat named Sparky when I was a kid. He never had dry cat food and I don't think it had been invented yet. Puss n' Boots canned cat food was from nasty old fish that must've laid on the dock for days before somebody processed it. The only kind of cat treats we knew about were some hard, dry, barrel shaped objects that were dyed different colors like red, green yellow and black. I think they were supposed to represent assorted flavors but I couldn't detect any difference in their smell. Sparky got a little bag of these in his Christmas stocking for each of his 11 Yuletimes. He loved them. Mom NEVER bought them during the year, only at Christmas. Poor Sparky. He had to live on the table scraps he could get our dog to share with him. Contrast that to NOW when we're lucky to get off for less than a couple hundred when we make a trip to PetsMart. Our two dogs, cat and bird have all manner of treats and not just at Christmas. I hope this makes our pet karma come out even, but am not sure poor litle Sparky would agree.