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Out To Lunch: Cats 'N Dogs

Grant Morris
/
It's New Orleans

Last year Americans spent over $55 billion on their pets. To put that in some sort of perspective, that's more than most countries in the world spend on their military.

In New Orleans, Zeus' Place is one of a number of 21st Century pet boarding and day care facilities where pets are treated somewhere between kindergarten kids and rest home residents, with activities, walks, naps and even their own apartment. Michelle Ingram, founder and owner.

In New Orleans, we keep spending money on our pets even after they're dead. Heaven's Pets is a post-life pet care business — a joint venture with Stewart Enterprises, the largest provider of funeral and cemetery services in the United States. Based at Lake Lawn Cemetery in Metairie, Heaven's Pets will arrange a funeral for a departed pet, or they'll simply cremate your pet and give you the ashes in an urn. The President of Heaven's Pets is Patrick McCausland.

Patrick and Heaven's Pets are poised to move nationwide. Michelle would like to see her business expand too. Both sit down with Peter Ricchiuti to talk pet pampering.

Peter Ricchiuti is the finance professor you wish you had back in college! His insight and humor have twice made him the top professor at Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business. After a successful career on Wall Street, Ricchiuti served for five years as Assistant State Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer for the State of Louisiana. There he skillfully managed the State's $3 billion investment portfolio.