RE: Do you ever catch yourself playing favorites with your pets?
It's funny you say that. In our household I would say my husband prefers the cat more, and I prefer the dog. Not overly, of course - but our cat was his before we got married, and our dog was a dog that I chose.
We often find that if the pets are being naughty, my husband will stand up for the cat and his bad behavior, and I will stand up for the dog. For instance if the cat is scratching the furniture he will say that the cat is only doing it because he is bored and that's our fault! Or if the dog is chasing the cat I'll say that the cat was antagonizing him. It's little things like that which show our bias, I think!