Whether it's because you are away at school, too busy with work, or have an animal-hating landlord; not having an animal in your life can be rough. Sometimes you just need a puppy to cuddle up next to or a kitten to play with to get you through a stressful week. Any animal lover longing for that special companion is all too familiar with these common struggles.

1. “Can I pet your dog,” comes out of your mouth at least 10 times a day.

2. You don’t even think twice before kneeling down and letting a stranger’s dog kiss you all over.

3. When you visit home, you are way more excited to hang out with your cat than with your parents.

4. You are constantly dragging your friends to the animal shelter to play with puppies whenever you are bored and you consider adopting one and hiding it from your landlord on a daily basis.

5. You follow pages like, “cats_of_instagram” and “worldoflabs” on Instagram.

6. You go on Care.com at least once a day looking for a pet-sitting job.

7. You are that person at the party playing with the host’s cat instead of socializing.

8. You wish you had a dog just so you could dress him up in costumes on Halloween.

9. You are always trying to convince your friends, with pets, to go out of town so you can watch them.

And you will, of course, do it for free.

10. When you are having a bad day, you immediately look up, “cute animal pics” to cheer yourself up.

11. And the wallpaper on your phone is always a picture of a cute puppy that is obviously up to no good.

12. In fact, all of your Facebook friends think you are a pet owner because almost every photo you post is of you and someone else’s dog.

13. But you aren't worried because, even though it sucks not having a pet of your own, you still get to play with everyone else's.