Dr Maureen Burke, psychologist and Director of Student Support Services at the University of Queensland, has her own pet project involving "Buddy", her chocolate-point Siamese cat.

Buddy entered Maureen's life six months after the death of her husband and helped her through the grieving process. Maureen says, during this time Buddy loved and accepted her whatever mood she was in.

"It's the sense of being needed," says Maureen. "They welcome you home and you have to feed and look after them. It's that, and the unconditional love that they provide in return."

After experiencing how Buddy helped her through her own difficult time, Maureen compiled a relaxation and visualisation tape featuring Buddy to help a close friend who had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

"She found it so helpful she suggested I prepare a generic tape for other people, so we developed 'Buddy Targets Cancer'," explains Maureen.

Using the tape, Maureen ran a small study with 12 people to investigate how Buddy could help in treating other cancer patients. Her findings were presented at the European Congress of Psychology in 2001 where she advised the results of this pilot study were particularly promising.

"It's about helping patients to feel good about themselves and I think that cats particularly have a strong sense of who they are," says Maureen.

"A sense of belonging is very important to people, particularly with the number of Australians living alone; it's terribly important to have a pet."

Maureen says being able to respond to a pet is very important particularly with illnesses such as depression on the increase.

"Pets make us laugh, they show loyalty, they love us, they need us, we have to be responsible for them - these are all good attributes."

But WHY are these attributes important to us? I ask the biggie: WHY do we love our pets so much?

"I think we love them because they mean so much to us," she says. "We have a relationship with them and in any relationship - human or animal - you give and you receive. And we receive so much from our pets.

"That's why we love them so much because they give us so much."

Finally, I had found the meaning of life with pets.

But there's more. "If you take life today, the pace is very fast, things are constantly changing; whereas there's something about a pet that is constant," adds Maureen.

"Maybe a pet can provide that sense of security that we are all looking for."

So does this explain the millions of dollars Queenslanders spend on pet care? Is it simply one way of expressing our love?

"If you love a child or animal, you want to give them something," says Maureen. "And if you can find little presents that make you happy, and you can, well you do it."

I take it one step further and ask: are our relationships with pets replacing our relationships with people?

"I think, for some people, developing relationships may be difficult so they are happy with the relationship they have with their animal," Maureen says. "And, if they get what they want from that, then who are we to criticise?"