Top dog: Shares of online pet store Chewy soar in debut

NEW YORK (AP) — It's raining cats and dogs on Wall Street.

Chewy, the online seller of pet food and squeaky toys, went public Friday and its shares soared 71%.

The stock's rise values the 8-year-old company at $15 billion.

Demand for the initial public offering has been high. Chewy raised just over $1 billion, with 46.5 million shares sold at $22 each. That's above what the company had expected.

At midday Friday, its shares were trading at $37.71.

Chewy may bring to mind the failed online pet stores of the 1990s, but a lot has changed since the days of Pets.com. People are accustomed to buying nearly anything online. And pets are more pampered: Americans spent $72.6 billion on their furry pals last year, more than triple the amount spent two decades ago.