Dogs were one of the first animals domesticated by humans and have been domesticated for some 10,000 years.
 
 
The Saluki, the name deriving from the Arabic word meaning ‘noble one', is the oldest known breed of dog. In ancient Egypt, they were bred as hunting dogs.
 
 
Animals seem to have held a special place in ancient Egyptian. In fact, the penalty for taking the life of a greyhound was the same as that of killing a man.
 
 
Cats during ancient Egypt were considered demigods and the property of divine Pharaoh. That ranked them above humans, making them the first to be saved if a house caught fire, before the people.
 
 
Kubla Khan owned the greatest number of dogs ever to be owned by one person -- a whopping 5000 mastiffs!
 
 
The ancient Chinese royalty loved the Pekingese, carrying them tucked into the sleeves of their royal robes.
 
 
The Lhasa Apso was once used by monks as guard dogs in temples.
 
 
Lord Byron, the English Romantic poet, had inscribed upon the gravestone of his beloved Newfoundland, Boatswain, the following: "Beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of man without his vices."
 
 
In the late 1860's, the Doberman breed was created by Louis Doberman, a German tax-collector, with the intent of protecting him while he worked.
 
 
In Liege, Belgium in 1879, 37 cats were employed to carry bundles of letters to villages, though the cats proved pretty undisciplined and the service didn't last long.
 
 
It's believed that cats played a big role during the infamous Black Plague in Europe. Because it was believed that people with cats were witches, all the cats were gathered together, caged and burned. Unfortunately, this removed a natural host for fleas and left rats to run free and multiply. Many of the survivors of the Black Plague were actually people who harbored cats.
 
 
Survivors of the Titanic included two dogs: a Pekingese belonging to Henry Sleeper Harper and a Pomeranian belonging to Miss Margaret Hays.
 
 
In 1945, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte -- the last surviving member of the famous Bonaparte family -- died from injuries sustained while tripping over his dog's leash.
 
 
Laikia, a dog, was the world's first ever space astronaut. She was sent into space in an artificial earth satellite in 1957 by the Russian government.
 
 
At his Key West, Florida home, Ernest Hemingway was famous for keeping cats, lots of them, and many of which had six toes on their front paws!
(This is my Pipi! - a Hemingway)