Recently, my wife's cat Persephone has decided I'm her new favorite person. At first, I figured it was because when I lie down on the couch, it's usually on a heating pad. After all, the heating pad is what attracts Karma.

When I have it going, she circles me like a shark, waiting for me to get up so she can steal it. But the heating pad doesn't seem to be the

draw for Persephone, because I've left it plugged in and unattended and she ignores it. And just now, as I lay down to write this column, she jumped down from my laundry basket (full enough to be a nice perch for her) and scampered across the bed onto my chest.

She's been doing this for weeks now. Because of my back pain, I still can't sit for long periods, so I lie down, and as soon as I'm vertical, Persephone hustles over and jumps onto my chest. It's mostly cute, although 8 pounds can really knock the wind out of you when it's jumping from

the top of the couch.

When Juno died last November, I wasn't sure how long it would take me to feel another real bond with a cat. Maybe that seems silly and melodramatic (it is just cats we are talking about here), but Juno and I were together for nine years. We'd been through a lot together - well, more specifically, I went through a lot and Juno mostly just hung out and stole potato chips.

I'm not saying Persephone is just like Juno. For one thing, she's not nearly as scrungly. For another, she has never once tried to steal human food. But sometimes I crawl into bed at night and Persephone is already on my pillow, which scares the crap out of me because it's dark and I'm not usually expecting a small furry mammal on my pillow. More fool me.

Just like Juno, she refuses to move for my convenience, so I end up going to sleep with her perched on top of my head like a little orange hat. She has the same swagger and confidence that Juno had, too. Who cares if a dog is six times her size? Persephone isn't going to let herself be bossed around.

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The other day Persephone hissed at Karma and it made Karma literally back down, turn tail, and leave the room. Persephone has also developed as many nicknames as she has lives - Persephone, Perjepne, Purse Phone, Pejepscot (after the watershed), Squishems (when she's being good), Duckbert (when she's being naughty), The Great Orange Terror (when she's being very naughty) and Beanbert (when she sits on the sealed container of beans my wife soaks overnight on Saturday for Sunday).

Meanwhile, on the canine front, my wife taught Karma to respond to the name "Stinky" and my dog Janey, to put it in medical terms, "failed" Prozac. She tried it and it did diddly squat for her anxiety, despite several months on the highest dose the vet was willing to give a 30-pound critter. I thought at first it was helping, but what I thought was Janey chilling out was in fact a two-week period of fatigue as she got adjusted to her new medication. (Dogs experience side effects too!)

I can't say I'm surprised. I've always said that Janey and I are one soul in two bodies and Prozac wasn't strong enough for me either. I've been on a daily three-drug regimen for years now, without which I would have never made progress in living with my anxiety disorder or even gotten sober from alcohol. So I went back to the drawing board (the vet's office) and we decided to put my dog on Xanax.

This particular med is where Janey and I differ. Someone like myself, who can't have a single glass of wine without her life spiraling into the toilet, should never ever try benzodiazepines. Fortunately, the risk of addiction doesn't really exist in dogs, although if she starts begging every time we walk by a CVS, I guess we'll need to have a talk.

On the one hand, it feels very silly and millennial to say "my dog is on daily Xanax." But the thing is, it's working. Janey still barks when someone enters the house (which, quite frankly, I'm fine with) but she seems to be settling down faster. She's been less jumpy around Persephone.

And the biggest difference is she's become so much more playful. She wrestles with Karma for half the morning like they used to when Karma was still a puppy (motherhood really takes it out of you, regardless of species.) She played with another dog at the dog park. (This is a big step!) Janey even let a small child pet her (under close supervision by me), and small children have always scared her. Truly, this has been better living through pharmaceuticals.

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