How Did Pets Become Pets?

Did you ever wonder how Pets became Pets??  The child of a friend of mine asked me this the other day and it got me to thinking.  We all know dogs are descended from wolves, but what make people decide that wolves could become pets? 

I often think it might have happened as it did in one of my favorite book series.  I think it’s the 3^rd book in the Clan of the Cave Bear series (The Mammoth Hunters) where the heroine, Ayla, kills a wolf that has been stealing animals from her traps.  She discovers the wolf was a nursing mother who had given birth out of season.  Ayla tracks the wolf to her den, where there is one surviving wolf puppy.  Ayla decides to save the puppy and he becomes an invaluable friend and helper to her.

According to Wikipedia a pet (or companion animal) is a household animal kept for a person’s enjoyment, as opposed to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals, and sport animals, which are kept for economic reasons.  The most popular pets are dogs and cats, but there are also rodents, avian, reptile, and aquatic pets.

The earliest record of dogs as pet can be found in ancient Egypt where greyhounds originated.  Killing a greyhound brought about the same penalty as killing a man.  Domesticated cats were bred from wildcats in Egypt.  They were believed to be akin to gods in ancient Egypt and the property of pharaohs.  They were ranked above humans and were the first saved in a catastrophe before humans. Of course this all changed in the middle ages when cats were believed to be familiars to witches and burned at the stake along with them. 

Before the era of the radio (early 1800’s) birds were popular pets, especially song birds.  Bird food was actually the first mass produced pet food.  Dog food wasn’t mass produced until the late 1800’s.

Buddhist monks in seventh century China were the first to raise gold fish in ponds.  By the fourteenth century Chinese were keeping goldfish in bowls as pets.  Reptiles weren’t popular until the 1920’s when central heating was invented.  Before that owners couldn’t keep their homes warm enough to keep them as pets.

My friends child didn’t know what she was getting into when she asked me how pets became pets.  J

Be Well & Be Happy,

Pet~Pourri