Pets

 It is said that about 68% of American households have pets.  This comes out to about 85 million families.  I've owned a few pets but I  made a decision when I moved to Alaska, I wouldn't own one.  The extremely cold winters and the cost of transporting them if you live out in the bush.

Pets have sort of been around for a while but its only in the last century or so that its become quite popular.  It appears man began domesticating wolves some 12,000 to 14,000 years ago.  They were not always pets but often work animals.

About 4,000 years later, when people began moving from being nomadic to farmers, the cat began being domesticated.  These farms had buildings with small creatures such as mice and the cats hunted these invaders.  As far as being pets, only the rich could afford these animals because they were for pleasure, not for work.  The records indicate Chinese emperors kept dogs who had their own servants while in Ancient Greece dogs helped out as healers in temples.

In the Medieval times, the aristocracy owned pets.  Women preferred smaller lap dogs while men desired a dog who could hunt so they went after hunting hounds.  This lead to people breeding dogs to hunt specific creatures.  At the same time, the Church suggested it was better not to own pets because the money could be used to help the poor.  This dislike reached a point during the inquisition where owning a pet was used against the charged person.  In addition, if a person was friendly to an animal during the witchcraft trials, it was said the animal was the "witch's familiar" thus the person was a witch.

It took till the and of 17th century for people to begin accepting that one could have a pet and not be evil.  Then in the late 18th century, the middle classes began keeping pets but it wasn't until Victorian times pet ownership was more acceptable but it was still considered acceptable for the lower class to own pets.  Furthermore, the first competative dog show was held in New Castle in 1859 for pointers and and Settlers.  England has been known for dog breeding since Roman times.

Around the same time, Charles Darwin published his book "The Origin of the Species".  This book provided the first detailed information on how characteristics are passed on and this lead to a formalization of dog breeding. Since then, it has become more acceptable for people to own pets ranging from dogs, to cats, to fish, to birds.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.