I'll admit that we've done our part through the years to stoke the popularity of lists. Top this, best that. Lists get reads and they get passed on to friends, family and co-workers.  For media, lists work.  

Personally, I've also done my part to promote the appeal of the list. Whenever Milwaukee's mentioned in one, I write about it and then, usually, others pick it up and the list spreads. See, people love lists.

Well, people also love pets. Personally, I'm not a pet guy but I'm still interested in the latest list -- "Best U.S. cities to hire a pet sitter?". Yep, it exists. And, drum roll, Milwaukee is No. 1!  

Thanks to the fine folks at Sittercity.com, these types of things are ranked and our great city landed on top. Yep, need a dog sitter? Milwaukee is your town. 

Since Sittercity is a membership site, I found much of the buzz on the list via a blog at the San Francisco Chronicle's Web site (Thanks for the tip, Dean Amhaus).

Sittercity, by the way, is Chicago-based and is a pretty cool site. It says it's the "Web's leading parent-babysitter matchmaking site" and full of functionality and resources.  

But back to the list. As blogger Amelia Glynn at SFGate noted, "the list was compiled using criteria that included the number of job postings to the site, the hourly cost of a walker/sitter and the number of dog walkers and petsitters available in each market."

SFGate says Sittercity said this about Milwaukee, "Milwaukee has approximately 1,570 available sitters who are paid an average of $8.21 per visit — one of the most competitive dog walker/pet sitter rates in the country. The average national rate for a pet sitter is $10-15 per visit. (The average length of a visit is 20-30 minutes.)"

So there you have it, Milwaukee, another doggone list. Until next time, keep reading and we 'll keep listing.