Despite a serious recession, the American Pet Products Assn. estimates Americans will spend $45.4 billion on pets in 2009, up 5.1% from last year and nearly double pet spending a decade ago. That optimism isn’t contradicted by PetSmart’s latest results. For the quarter ended in April, PetSmart’s earnings were 37¢ per share, handily beating both analysts’ expectations of 30¢ and results from the year before of 32¢. The company raised its predictions for 2009 earnings.

Same-store sales at PetSmart were up 3.9%. Traffic at its stores actually increased (but only 0.1%), the first rise in traffic in two years. Given the tough economy, that’s an impressive feat. PetSmart “seems to be seeing more consistent traffic than one would assume could happen during a trade-down macroeconomic environment,” wrote Stifel Nicolaus (SF) analyst David A. Schick.

Though the retailer is off for the past year, it’s still beating the overall market, which fell 36 percent compared to PetSmart’s eight percent. And veterinary chain VCA Antech–stock call letters: WOOF–is up 21 percent in 2009.