The Secret Life of Pets (3 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #33

Pets need attention, especially dogs. They're sad when their owners go out to work all day. They whine unhappily when the owner leaves, and they're overjoyed when he returns. My parents always owned dogs, and they had a strategy to keep them happy. They always owned two dogs at a time to keep one another company during the day.

Max is a Jack Russell who lives in a New York City apartment with Katie. She disappears for hours every day, as most people do. We aren't told what her job is. It isn't relevant. What we see is that Max is unhappy when he's left alone.

He soon makes friends with other pets in the house. They run up and down the fire escapes, in and out of windows, and they happily play with one another. Neither Katie nor any of the other owners know what's going on, because Max and his friends are all sitting and waiting at the door when their owners return home from work.

Katie thinks the same way as my parents. She buys a large mongrel called Duke to keep Max company. It doesn't work. They don't get on with one another. One day Duke drags Max into the alley, trying to make him get lost, but they both lose their collars in a fight with a gang of stray animals who hate humans. In a series of events they're captured by dog catchers, then freed by the stray animals, then captured again. Max is lost and has to find his way back through the city.

But he finds his way back, and when Katie comes come he's sitting at the door as if nothing had happened. This is the life that pets keep secret.

It's a cute but infeasible story. It'll make pet owners want to close their windows before they go to work.

Success Rate:  + 9.8

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