This week we celebrate Pet Owners Day, and since sometimes people develop closer relationships with their animal companions than with their human surroundings, we’ll take a look at those sometimes touching, sometimes disturbing relationships with pets.

Marley & Me

A writer’s life falls into disarray when he adopts a seemingly harmless dog whose mischievousness reflects on the whole family’s life.  This feel good family outing flick was one of the surprising blockbusters of 2008.

Wendy and Lucy

Offering a sincere look at human nature, this critically acclaimed independent film follows a down on her luck young woman on the road to Alaska whose only real connection is with her dog. When her dog is lost, things begin to look even more gloomy for her.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Having a pet as a partner is pretty strange, but with eccentric scientist Wallace, “strange” is just the starting point. Aside from displaying multiple experiments going awry and a competition with a hotshot hunter, this witty animated film also managed to nab an Oscar.

Wilfred

A talking and not-so-friendly dog is half of the odd couple that is the center of this surreal comedy about a twentysomething man who discovers that his girlfriend’s dog sees himself as human, and hardly a nice one. Although they start as rivals, the two develop an unlikely friendship, dipped in the compulsory silly humor.

Red

The death of his dog by the hands of teenage criminals sends an elderly loner on a vengeance trail with inevitable tragic results. Brian Cox leads this slow inspection of social decay in a small town.

The Rabbi’s Cat

Felines are often considered divine creatures by some people, but having a cat contemplating religion is certainly offbeat, as we see in this humorous period piece about a cat on an obsessive quest and his constant theological arguments with his owner.

White Dog

Sadly, sometimes pets are being used as means to vicious ends, as demonstrated in this controversial film by the late, great Samuel Fuller, a racist parable about a dog trained to attack black people. In fact, the film was regarded so problematic that  Paramount Pictures cancelled its American theatrical run.

Every Which Way But Loose

In one of the few comedies in his long career, Clint Eastwood is unusual in more ways than one, for example he is best buddies with a short tempered, beer drinking orangutan. If you’re looking for an offbeat boys’ night, you can do much worse.

Willard

A social misfit finds a pet as ostracized as him in this suspenseful remake for a 1971 film starring Crispin Glover, where a mentally unstable man uses an army of obedient rats in a vengeance scheme against his boss, coworkers and society at large.

Kes

A young boy coming of age in working class England manages to escape his dead-end life, if only for a short time, by taking care of a falcon in this emotional, prestigious award winning film by Ken Loach.

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