ABSTRACT
This light little essay on pets as child substitutes is included here as a way of bringing forth for examination certain taken-for-granted ideas about what, in adult terms, children are ‘for’. The sociological significance of this essay should not be exaggerated. Waksler is a fiction writer, not a scientist, and his work can be read as an entertainment. For our purposes here, however, his essay also enables us to raise a number of significant issues.
