Pet Society: The Newest Facebook Craze!

What's Pet Society, you ask? I don't know how else to describe it except for to say it's the game that puts a modern, glitzy spin on Tamagotchi and offers players hours of fun.

I used to hum along to a song from Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland and the opening lyrics describe Pet Society better than I ever could. They go a little something like this:

Cat's and rabbits, would reside in fancy little houses

And be dressed in shoes and hates and trousers

In a world of my own.

Sounds delightful, right? To sign up (and it's free), all you have to do is go to your Facebook account and search for "Pet Society." Next, choose the sex of your pet and, as you would with a Wii, design what your pet looks like. After that, you'll be taken to your house. Get oriented with the different places you can go, including the Food store (you need to keep your pet fed), the clothing store (style your pet to your heart's desire) and the café (to visit other pets, of course). Also note the stadium, which serves as a great way to make points/earn coins.

After you orient yourself, you'll probably wonder how on earth you earn coins without going to the bank and spending real money. It's easy! The following are a few ways to boost your numbers:

Visit other pets: Get your friends to sign up for Pet Society, or make friends by visiting the café. The first 50 friends you visit any given day you'll receive 20 coins per visit. Rad! While you're at your friends' places, groom them with your soap and feed them, too. You'll get coins for both!

Race at the Stadium: Practice a few times, first. Once you've got some experience under your belt, race with the other pets (10 per day). For every race you win, you get 30 coins. If you're feeling lucky, bet on a pet (there's no strategy to winning this one).

Walk through the trees: You'll find lots of coins hiding in the trees!

Earn paw points: Your paw points may seem insignificant, but the more you earn, the more coins you earn. That's because with every level you go up, you'll get 100-150 coins. Sweet!

Give presents away/trade: This will help increase your paw points, plus it will make others very happy! You can also trade items in the Pet Society Forums and you'll receive points when you send your item to the person you're trading with.

Go poo: Sounds gross, but it pays off! Poo is very valuable and can be traded in the forums. Your pet goes poo when the heart and happy meter are up, but the hygiene meter is down. Sometimes (it's very rare), your pet will have a golden poo! Don't click it - either display it proudly in your quarters or offer it up in the forums for some really great things.

Earn trophy's: Click on the icon that looks like a trophy and you'll see that there are many up for grabs. For every trophy you win, you get 100-150 coins. Now that's a nice reward!

Good luck with Pet Society, especially if you happen to get addicted like moi. Perhaps it's my undying love for all things cute and furry, or perhaps it's due to my infatuation with decorating, designing and styling. Or, it could even be a result of my obsession with the internet. Strike that - it's got to be a combination of all three.