Does anyone else read "The Hunt," the column in the NYT's Sunday Real Estate section, religiously? It's about a person or a couple, often borderline obnoxious, and their search to find a new apartment, either to rent or buy. Although they include a mix of buyers and renters with different price points, it's usually annoying because even the cheapest renter is looking to pay about three times more than you can afford. And then you watch as they reject perfectly nice apartments for the most princessy of reasons. A trend I've noticed the last three weeks: moving to acommodate your pet!

People, this is New York! The vacancy rate is below 1% in Manhattan!

From this Sunday's column, titled All for the Dog:

"He knew it would be only a matter of time before he would have to relinquish the $2,500-a-month one-bedroom apartment he was renting on West 16th Street. It was in a co-op building that didn't allow dogs." Oh, and also? The second floor was the highest-up he was willing to go: "I figured, I am going out to Brooklyn; I don't need to go above two flights."

From the same column two weeks ago, Settling Down, Without Having to Settle:

"I don't need a great place. I am really low-maintenance, as long as I can bring the dog."

From three weeks ago, More Than a Pet Project:

Two adopted cats provide the impetus for a move. Last spring, the couple, living in a studio in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, adopted two cats. One had ringworm, a skin fungus. The cats, Loki and Pliooshka, needed months of treatment with medications, ointments and shampoos. They had to be kept apart, too, lest Pliooshka infect Loki.

So the couple borrowed two big metal animal cages, which filled the apartment. "In a studio, there was no way for us to separate the cats, so we thought the only solution was to find an apartment with more than one room," Mr. Kokoris said.

I'll admit that once, back in Michigan, I moved because the drug dealers I was living with switched from dealing mostly pot to mostly meth, and I didn't like the influx of at least a dozen tweakers passing through the apartment at all hours. But that seemed fairly reasonable to me.

[Photo: Chester Higgins Jr. for the NYT]

Contact information for this author is not available.