I originally bought my webcam on a whim, curious to watch my dogs while I was away. Soon I became addicted. It's a device that literally lets you live the fantasy of being a fly on the wall. In addition to a Pet Cam, it's morphed into a Security Cam and a Baby Cam.

PET CAM
Anyone who lives with companion animals such as a dog or cat has wondered, "What do they do while I'm gone? Do they watch television, read books, order pizza?" After years of extensive research studying the domestic canine, I can tell you with confidence the secret of what pets do while you're gone: they sleep.

Occasionally they get up to stretch. The male sometimes pees on the futon. Then after that, they go back to sleep. Despite this anti-climactic revelation, I enjoy my webcam immensely. If you're neurotic like me, it's very soothing to be able to pull up a window while at work and look in on the little terrors. It's incredibly boring for others to watch (I get mocked a lot for it) but I still enjoy it. It's especially fun to use my webcam's "video-stitching" feature. This is where it takes all the images it has snapped over the course of the day and makes them into a video.

You really get a sense of how long they nap as you watch the sun rays zip across the room. It's also good for a laugh to watch their stretch routines: they pop around the room, stretch, sniff, sleep.

SECURITY CAM
The side-effect of being able to watch my dogs while I'm at work is that I'm also watching my home. Knowing that my dogs normally snooze the day away, I feel confident that I could tell if an intruder was in the house, should my dogs suddenly start barking and running around agitated. Of course, it would be even more obvious if the intruder walked past the camera. Fortunately, this one hasn't been put to the test, but again, it eases neuroses.

BABY CAM
Recently, I was baby-sitting my niece. After she went to sleep in her crib, I was able to keep an eye on her while working on the computer. I simply opened up the live webcam window, dragged it to the corner of my screen and had enough room for other windows. I was able to keep an eye on her, notice when she got up, etc. I even snapped a couple cute pictures of her sleeping for her mommy.

THE FUTURE
I'd love to have more than one webcam in my home, to watch the cats as well. I'd even enjoy setting one up to watch my quiet neighborhood street to see what happens (if anything). I didn't start out as a webcam addict, but now that I have one, I don't know what I would do without it.

Learn more about this author, Larry Nocella.
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