I know it sounds silly but I really want a PetCam. With one of these doohickeys I can watch my pooch Vincent hang out at home all day long while I’m at work with the better-behaved (but cage-bound) Sophie Sue. If he does cute things while I’m out I can log on and watch him sleep in cockroach pose, make his favorite squirrel squeak or munch on his Kong to his heart’s content.

Sure, it’s gratuitous and embarrassing to take pleasure in things so simple with such a sophisticated apparatus, but humans have been doing this ever since we invented the wheel. (I’ll wager the wheel seemed complex to someone at some point.)

This PetCam toy is so neat it actually turns on when Fluffy or Fido walks into the room. Triggered by motion, it records when action is actually happening—or all the time, if you really want to watch your girl sleep all day while you’re toiling hard for her kibbles-n-vet bills.

You might think this post is absolutely useless--in a veterinary sense. But I'll assure you it's not. Have a diabetic? Want to be sure she's not having a hypoglycemic crisis after changing her insulin dose? Keep vigil online while at work. Concerned your new pup may eat his new bedding? Check in on his crate-training every couple of hours. See? there's something uselful to be said about this technology--even from a vet's point of view.

Perhaps that's just a convenient excuse for my PetCam lust.

So you know, Panasonic’s now giving one away if you enter a drawing online. If I make a fun enough video of my pet’s goofy antics, I wonder if they’ll give me special consideration. So I’m hoping my two couch potatoes can help me pull this off. So far, though, all I’ve got is some cute inter-dog playtime, Vincent looking out the car window (after hitting the automatic window button all by himself), and the early morning trampling sessions he employs to wake up my sub-teen human.

No matter. At some point, goat-dog antics are sure to rile the senses of Panasonic’s online marketing team. Maybe they’ll send me one just for writing this!—not.

How about you? Are you bizarrely inclined to video your pets? Does YouTube find you coming back for more at the drop of a cat? Feed me your favorite video—of your own or feel free to pick your favorite pet flick on the net. Don’t let me down. I know you have it in you.