Where's the best place for your cat or dog to live? An urban quality-of-living report to be released today says the Washington metropolitan area has a leg up on most other U.S. cities.

According to The Purina Pet Institute's "Pet Healthiest Cities in the U.S." report, the nation's capital ranks seventh out of 50 cities that were evaluated on characteristics and issues that impact pets' lives.

"This is very good news for Washingtonians . . . and for Washington area pets," says Aine McCarthy, executive director of the Purina Pet Institute and member of the Healthy Pets 21 Consortium, the think tank of pet health and welfare community leaders whose unprecedented analysis of cities nationwide sniffed out the best places for pets. "This is the first time anybody ever did this -- looking at 23 quantitative and qualitative factors that affect a pet's health, from air-quality and incidence of fleas and heartworms to the number of veterinary specialists and legislation."

The D.C. area stands out from the pack, according to the report, primarily for its abundance of dog parks -- 39 of them -- which puts it in the top 5 percent in that category and second only to San Francisco. In a second criterion, the area boasts 11 animal shelters that are approved by the Society of Animal Welfare Administrators.

Where the D.C. area has room for improvement in pet care, McCarthy says, is in pet expenditures: "Your area received one of the lowest scores on the amount of money people spend on their pets, and that's across the board on supplies and pet-related services." That's not to mention the high incidence of heartworm disease here due to the mosquito-inviting heat and humidity, or local laws that make certain types of animal cruelty a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

But the D.C. area noses San Francisco (8), Phoenix (9) and Hartford (10). Miami ranked 50th; its sole pet-friendly feature mentioned in the report is that it has the second lowest cigarette-smoking rate among the ranked cities.

The top dog? Denver, due to a 1-to-1,200 veterinarian-to-pet ratio that beats all other cities; the lowest flea population of any of the cities; and the Mile High City's air quality (not a single day in 1999 exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency's ozone level limits). Rounding out the top six: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Columbus, Philadelphia, Seattle and Portland, Ore.

"The hard data we came up with indicate more widespread acceptance of pets in the D.C. area," says McCarthy, adding that the report kicks off the Purina Pet Institute's five-year agenda to focus on and help educate Americans about responsible pet care.