They say there are more dogs than babies in San Francisco, and I am completely guilty of feeding that statistic. California as a state, however, has nothing on Vermont, the pet-owningest state in the nation. The numbers show that nearly 71 percent of Vermont households include a pet. A USA Today says:

More than half of U.S. households have a pet, and a whopping 70.8 % of households in Vermont own a pet, according to a new study from the American Veterinary Medical Association. The study ranks states by pet ownership and reveals where approximately 70 million dogs and 74.1 million cats are completing families across the U.S.

The next top pet-owning states following Vermont are: New Mexico with 67.6%; South Dakota, 65.6%; Oregon, 63.6%; Maine, 62.9%; and Washington, 62.7%.

According to the study, conducted in 2012 but based on 2011 numbers, California wasn’t even in the top 10; color me surprised! But it wasn’t in the bottom, either. Rather, our friends on the eastern seaboard — in Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey — took those spots.

Photo: Dog Mountain in Vermont, via ann-dabney on Flickr.