Need, dream, “unexpect”: animal companions and multispecies personal communities

Abstract

How do animal companions contribute to (re)shape human personal communities, understood as personal networks of meaningful others inhabiting our micro-social worlds? In a research about friendship ties in Portugal, animal companions emerged spontaneously as relevant members of the participants’ personal maps. This article explores this topic by drawing on 30 in-depth interviews with men and women, aged 21 to 65, living in Greater Lisbon, and focusing on one particular angle: the ways animals enter the personal communities they are part of. We highlight three main modalities of entrance: to fulfil a need; to fulfil a dream; and unexpectedly.