Who takes the dog?
Dana and Mario have a twelve-year-old lab named Rufus (who is a very good boy), and they've told Dana's sister she'd take him if anything happened. Her sister said of course she would. That was four years ago, and unfortunately nobody wrote anything down. For a lot of families, it’s not a big deal and reasonable people can come to an understanding. But a promise made years ago doesn't help much, and Mario’s brother wanted Rufus for his kids to play with. California gives you a better option than a handshake, and it starts with how the law classifies your dog.
Photo by Marco Grosso
Your dog is property, legally speaking
Under California law, your pets are personal property. Your twelve-year-old lab is, as far as the law is concerned, in the same category as your couch (sorry Rufus, we still love you). Most people hate hearing that, and fair enough. The law has given a little ground. Since January 1, 2019, Family Code section 2605 lets a judge in a divorce assign sole or joint ownership of a pet and actually consider how the animal is being cared for: things like food, water, vet treatment, and shelter. That's about the only place California treats a pet as something other than an object. Everywhere else, including when you die, your animal passes along with the rest of your stuff.
So can Dana just leave money to Rufus? No. A pet can't own property, which means a line in her will reading "I leave $10,000 to Rufus" doesn't do what she wants it to do. The money has to go to a person or into a trust. She could hand it to her sister and trust her to spend it on the dog, and honestly most people would, but nobody would ever know if she didn't. That's the difference between asking someone and actually providing for your animal.
A pet cannot own property in California. Money left directly to an animal in a will does not reach the animal.
How a pet trust works here
California has a statute for this, and it says a trust for the care of an animal is valid. You set money aside, name a trustee to hold it, and name a caregiver to have the animal day-to-day. Those can be two different people and often should be, since the person who's great with a dog isn't always the person you'd hand a checkbook. Unless your trust says otherwise, the trustee can't spend that money on anything except the animal. The trust runs as long as an animal who was alive when you died is still living, and then it ends.
Under California Law, a pet trust's money can be spent only for the animal's benefit, unless the trust document says otherwise.
You can also name someone whose only job is to check that the animal is actually being taken care of. If you don't name anybody, a court can appoint someone. And beyond that, anyone with an interest in the animal's welfare can take it to court, as can any nonprofit that cares for animals. Those same people can ask to see the dog, see where he's living, and look at the trust's books. A good first step is to ask the person you want to actually care for your pet day-to-day, and then ask again in a few years. People's lives change, and the friend who happily took your cat in 2019 may now have a baby, two roommates, or an allergy.
How much money to leave
This is the question everybody gets stuck on, and there isn't a clean answer, though the statute drops a hint. If a pet trust holds $40,000 or less, most of the formal filing, reporting, and fee rules don't apply unless a court orders them or your trust asks for them. That's an administratively-set number and not a recommendation as to how much to leave for your pet. It does, however, suggest what size of trust the Legislature had in mind.
A pet trust holding $40,000 or less is exempt from most filing, reporting and fee requirements.
The math you can do yourself at the kitchen table. Take what you spend on the animal in a year, multiply by the years you'd guess it has left, and add a cushion, because the last year is usually the expensive one. The ASPCA's published estimates, last updated in 2021, put routine annual care at about $1,391 for a dog and $1,149 for a cat. In California, treat those as a floor. They also don't include the surgery nobody saw coming. Overfunding isn't really a problem as long as you say where the leftover goes.
And you should say where the leftover goes, because the statute's default might not be what you'd pick. When the trust ends, whatever is left goes wherever your document directs it. If your document says nothing, it drops into the trust’s residuary clause. If there is no specification, it may simply go to your heirs. Clarifying where any overage should go yourself takes one sentence and adds significant clarity. Some clients even name the shelter they adopted from.
The humane society angle
Speaking of shelters, there's a new California law to know about if you're planning to leave something to an animal charity. SB 1288, the Legacy Fulfillment Act, was signed on September 27, 2026. The San Diego Humane Society, the Valley Humane Society, and CalNonprofits co-sponsored it. Let’s be clear about what it does and does not do, because the sponsors make it sound like a pet law and it really isn't. It covers money that passes outside probate, the kind you leave by filling out a beneficiary form on a brokerage or retirement account.
The problem it solves is that charities often never found out they'd been named in the first place. Now, once a financial institution has proof that every owner of an account has died, it has to make a reasonable, good faith effort to notify each named beneficiary within 60 days. It also stops institutions from making a nonprofit open an account just to receive the money, or demanding personal details about a charity's staff or board. Those rules start January 1, 2027 for nonprofit and charitable beneficiaries, and January 1, 2028 for everybody else. So if your plan includes a beneficiary form with a shelter's name on it, that form has a much better chance of getting where you meant it to go.
The steps you can take
None of this takes very long, and most of it you can do before you ever call a lawyer.
Ask the person you'd name to care for your pet whether they'd actually say yes, and ask again every few years.
Pick a backup caregiver, in case your first choice can't do it when the time comes.
Work out roughly what you spend on the animal in a year, and how many years it may have left.
Decide who holds the money and who has the animal, and whether those are the same person.
Say in writing where any leftover money goes when the animal dies.
Write down your vet's name, the animal's medications, and anything a new caregiver would need on day one.
If you've been putting this off, you're in good company, and it's much easier to have the conversation now than for the people in your life to try to piece together your wishes later. When you're ready to get it on paper, our team at Laurel Trust Law can help.