Well, Christmas time, the season of goodwill and reflection, is upon us. So we’ll take time off from the theme of Canine geriatrics which had commenced two weeks ago. Instead, we’ll reflect a bit on the human-animal bond.
Pets – we prefer to call them companion animals – have been with us since the dawn of civilization. In the case of dogs, well, they have been our friends for over 50,000 years. Cats, on the other hand, seem to have been associated with man only about 5-7 000 years. Interestingly enough, cat fossils have been found in Europe, Asia and Africa, but not in the Americas.
When humans began domesticating wolves thousands of years ago, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Many dog lovers say their pets seem to know what their masters are thinking. A study in the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, suggests that this line of thought might be at least partially right. Something about the process of domestication seems to have given dogs the ability to
