We've seen dogs get reunited with their owners thanks to Facebook and cats tweeting about their playtime -- so it should come as no surprise that the number of pets "using" social media has soared over the past year.

According to a new study by pet insurer Petplan, there's been a 36% increase in the number of pet owners creating Facebook and Twitter accounts for their animals in the last 12 months. Facebook is the more popular hangout, with 7% of dogs on the site, compared to 4% of cats.

And if owners aren't letting their pets bark and meow on their own -- they're certainly talking about them on their own profile pages, as 42% of pet owners upload pictures of their pets (that's it?). Meanwhile, 37% of pet parents most status updates on behalf of their furry children.

Even though cats are the dominant Internet animal when it comes to memes, its the dogs people want to talk about. Petplan noted that man's best friends are talked bout 12 times more often than cats on Twitter.

“Since we started tracking pets’ presence online there has been an explosion in ‘pet pride," said Petplan's Social Media Executive Francesca Keefe. "We’re also seeing more and more pet owners take to Twitter as an effective way to look for lost pets.”

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