Pet links
The best pet related links.
- The spruce petsLarge well known pet site.
- PetfinderFind a pet to adopt
- VetStreetWebsite about dogs and other pets.
- Aquatic CommunityLarge aquarium website
In this section, you will find information about pets and pet keeping.
According to data published by Live Science.com, the most frequently kept pet in the United States was freshwater fish (142 million pet freshwater fish in the country). The number of saltwater fish was considerably lower, only 9.6 million. Cats were more common than dogs (88.3 million cats vs. 74.8 million dogs), but more households had dogs.
Dogs
The domestic dog is generally considered a subspecies of the grey wolf (Canis lupus), but the first wolfs to be domesticated might have looked and behaved quite differently from todays modern wild wolfs since so much time has passed since then. The dog is believed to have been the first species to be domesticated, but exactly when it happened – or if it has happened several times independently – remains unknown. Some research indicate that humans and dogs have lived together for approximately 30,000 years. The dog’s long association with humans, and active selective breeding, have created an animal that is uniquely adapted to living with, understanding and working together with humans. Even their metabolism have changed and become more adapted to agricultural society than that of wild wolf.
Cats
The domestic cat (Felis catus) is one of the most popular pets world-wide. In addition to being a companion animal, it is also kept in or around homes and farms to hunt and scare away rodents.
African wildcats (Felis lybica) lived with humans in the Near East as early as 10,000 years ago and are believed to be the ancestors of the modern domestic cat. On Cyprus, a cat skeleton believed to be a tame African wildcat was found by archeologists excavating a Neolithic site where early farmers once lived. The cat skeletteon was discovered close to a human skeletton, at a grave site dated to around 7500 BC.
In China, the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis ) was domesticated around 5,500 BC. Over time, these domesticated cats were replaced by domesticated cats hailing from F. Lybica.