I have a bird. My off-color joke being that you aren't crazy if you talk to your pet bird because they can talk back. As long as I have a bird I'm fine, otherwise I tend to get kinda needy.

Also I force myself to live with roommates that drive me crazy and are irritating. I would rather live alone and that's why I don't, this way I get dragged out of my room and am forced to interact with people when I'm not at work.