Worldbuilding 105: Pets
Hello and greetings all hoomons! What do you mean that is not how it is pronounced? Whatever! It is me, Vivian! The best alien Limax you’ve ever known! Pets are an important aspect of our lives, well, your lives. I don’t have pets because even though I love pets, I would likely accidentally and unintentionally mistreat them, and I think they deserve a better home than with some ass like me. Anyway, ever wanted to make your own imaginary pets? Here, I will help you!
What is a pet?
First off, let us define what a pet is. An organism that you own! Wait, does that mean slaves are pets? 🤔 Okay, bad definition. Let’s be honest, it is a rough thing to define, but if I was to do it, I would do it like this:
A pet is generally an animal, or any kind of living being, that can react to stimuli of the moment quickly and that is under the care and supervision of a sapient entity that society considers responsible for the actions of the pet.
I know, it is vague, but since when is anything clearcut in life? My blog tries to be precise due to my autistic needs, but hey, even I know there are limits. This naturally excludes plants and the like as they cannot react to stimuli in any meaningful manner of the moment. You have meat eating plants that react to A stimulus, the one that triggers them to close, but anything else, they don’t. Same with pet rocks. Whose stupid idea was that? I want a word with them.
This definition however does allow for example planimal pets (plant-animal hybrid) and fungimal pets (fungus-animal hybrid) or the likes because similar to animals, they are quick to react to things around them that plants and fungi would not do.
What do we look for in a pet?
Pet-owner relationship can be viewed as a mutualistic one; people often say “symbiotic” but that word, symbiotic, actually refers to any long term relationship between two different species while mutualistic refers to one where both benefits. The pet gains a relatively comfortable life where the owner secures its basic needs of food, protection, and more, and the owner either gets pure joy out of it or other things. Cats, for example, gave humans rodent pest control back in the day which was very important. Dogs acted as extra alarms if something was approaching or helped with scouting and similar activities. Pets can and have given people a lot more than just their love, even if their love is more than enough to warrant having one.
So for early civilisations and groups, there generally needs to be a tangible benefit to having a pet, as they do cost time and resources. And resources were scarce back then. For more advanced societies where food related commodities stop being an issue, the love and entertainment value starts becoming more of the value in a pet. Again, ignoring the them-loving-you part. But the thing is, there are pets, and then there are “pets”. What many call “exotic pets” are not pets in the sense that they have any relationship to you. This is because viewing you as someone with a relationship to itself is a social thing. And most animals in the world are not social. They are in fact antisocial and hate other beings other than for mating and eating. What these “pets” learn to do is tolerate you and know that you will provide food. But if you disappeared, they wouldn’t care.
If you want a genuine relationship where you, the individual, is meaningful as more than “provider of food”, social animals (or whichever fantastical life kingdom you’ve made up, I will use animal for your sake in the blog) are what you want. In social animals, each individual is unique and has a very specific relationship and “value” in their brain. Think of yourself, every human you know and care about has a specific value to you: love, care, friendship etc. It is all stored in your brain. Even if you have a pet, you register them as an individual that you identify and have a specific relationship with. Now think about snakes or spiders or insects… yeah, they are just a bunch of beings in the same category that you do not distinguish a lot. That is how you are to many of these so-called exotic “pets”. Kind of sad in a way, but hey, if it still makes you happy having them, and you take good care of them, who am I to shit on your parade? You’re still kind to them, so you’re good even if they don't care. Please do not project things onto these exotic “pets”, it is fine to love them and all, but do not treat them like they are social animals. You will only cause severe amounts of distress and other issues. Treat them the best way that you can based on their specific needs.
Domestication vs Taming vs Tolerating
These three words have very specific meanings when it comes to animals, and even plants and fungi. But we’ll focus on animals, as this is pets and I already excluded the other two, NO PET PLANTS OR FUNGI!
Tolerating when it comes to animals and similar creatures is when they essentially learn that you’re not a threat to them. You might be doing nice things such as giving them food, or sometimes being a bit of an ass by disturbing them or moving them. They can learn to accept these bad things because they have come to expect that later, you will provide the good stuff. But the thing is, they have no liking for you either. They literally only tolerate you and your actions because they expect goodies later, and the moment the goodies stop, their tolerance for you is likely to evaporate, and they’ll become actively hostile toward you.
Taming is when you take wild animals and teach them to not only tolerate a human (or alien) presence, but generally actively seek it out. Humans can be good and provide food and much else! Tamed creatures generally form social bonds with their carers and others and can even accept a new owner because they know humans are good and will help them and they will happily help back. This is not a natural state for the creature, but it is a possible one for them. One thing to note, however, is that taking an animal, especially a social animal like an elephant, against its will, and more importantly, starting to beat or harm them to get them to do what you want, is not “taming” in any sense that is meaningful. It is abuse– pure and simple abuse. Animals deserve their form of dignity and care and respect. Not all animals require the same or want the same, and that is fine, but give them the version they crave and deserve.
Domestication is the longest and slowest of the three. It means the organism has been in contact with humans for so long that due to evolution, by you or any sapient being, or by itself, it has come to depend more or less on the mutualistic relationship between pet and owner to survive. Without it, domesticated beings are generally doomed to death. They naturally seek out human companionship and don’t view humans as strangers, but part of themselves and their needs. You are not just their owner, you are their family that they depend on.
Exotic pets
What is exotic for one is common for another. Except pets. When it comes to pets, exotic pets generally refer to animals that are rarely used as pets and are typically highly antisocial species. Some are social, like some bird species, but they are… known to be difficult. That is the thing with exotic pets. They are exotic for a reason. They require special care, special habitats, special lives, and they require a certain special amount of fucking respect. What I mean with that is that one has to really understand what these animals need and how they live and such before getting them. All pets require it, but dogs and cats are fairly intuitive as their needs are relatively close to our own due to being social animals. But do not fucking get a komodo dragon and think it’ll be content with that kind of life. Honestly, it’ll likely kill you, and if you took no precautions to understand it and its needs, you deserve it.
Narratively, however, read up on the exotic animals if you use them, because they can be used to great effect. Even if you make up ones. They can illustrate skill, care, and knowledge of the pet owner by having one, or several, exotic pets that are quite content. Or evil if you… go the other way. I won’t say how because Anne will kill me then.
If you want to make up an exotic pet, there are a few suggestions:
Have the pet species be very specific in habitat, including
Where it is found
What it eats
How it mates
Have it be antisocial or a social structure very different from humans
If antisocial, have it act unaffectionate by your standards
Give it a lifestyle that does not require it to do a lot to be happy. The less it is willing to do, the better.
Uses of pets
We are once again going to skip the whole “they love me” aspect because the emotional comfort and love and care they provide is too obvious. This also excludes exotic pets because they rarely are useful due to having to be kept locked away as they tend to not care and run away. So what use can a pet be to their owner that justifies the cost?
Well for dogs, they could hear things you humans couldn’t, smell as well. They can run faster, if not for as long. Dogs have been bred to do so many different jobs, it is amazing that dogs are not more fucked up than they are. I do not say this to be mean, but certain breeds really fucked them up. But examples of their usage are
Herding
Chasing
Attacking
Distracting
Smelling
Hearing
Pulling
Digging
Hunting
Pointing
Guarding
And this is to name a few of their uses, and the thing is… they are happy to do this! They love being useful! The more useful they are, the happier they get! They have evolved to love your attention so much that your “Good boy!” or “Good girl!” makes them feel almost as good as during sex for them. Don’t dig too deep into that thought. They love it.
What dogs are bad at, however, is rodent related issues, because they are not very agile hunters of the night. They are pack animals that hunt together just like humans, so your cooperation was inevitable. But cats? As antisocial assholes that they might seem to be, they are not. They are still highly social, but their social structure is quite different and not as tight. They still don’t entirely give up on relations, which is why they rarely give up on their humans. But what did they do? Well, as I said before and have hinted at, they were good at rodent control. They are silent, sneaky, real ninjas of pets, and suddenly kill the rat! This was very important in early society where large stockpiles of grain attracted rodents. The cats helped keep them under control. The price they cost was easily repaid by the lack of loss due to rodents.
So for pets that ain’t exotic, think of what they did for their original owners upon domestication. They likely did a job and did it well, or came to do it well due to domestication and breeding. The love, however, remained throughout it all as time evolved.
Benefits vs costs
I have highlighted already, in early society the cost vs benefit thing is very important in the pet-owner mutualistic relationship. If the pet does not provide enough benefit to warrant its cost, it is likely to turn into food rather than being kept alive. Exotic pets were rare back in the day, but they were a fantastic way to show off wealth! If you could take care of an elephant, you were loaded! But for regular people, it had to be more daily tasks which is why cats and dogs easily became the favourite pets for humanity, and it remains so to this day.
So a thing to think on is this, if a pet is very common, what task did it once used to do to help people? People’s affinity and history with pets is coloured by their utility. We love them, but love is cheap in harsh times. It is thanks to utility and benefit together that love for each other can make it so everyone is better off. What good did/does the pet do beyond love?
Pet’s appearance
There are certain traits humans are drawn to, and you should consider them. Guess what they are! Okay, you’re out of time, you get an F-, Anne, can we give super F-’s? (Anne: permission granted!) Anyway, humans like things that remind you of you. That is why forward-looking eyes are liked, same with four legs (as opposed to six or eight limbs). Big eyes are a big thing because they look so damn cute! Look at the cute little thing with its big eyes! ...What does it remind you of?
Yepp, babies. This is funnily a thing very common in mammals, big eyes and such as a child, bigger head and all that jazz, because it is meant to trigger the sense of “I wanna care for it”, as mammals require care as children. You are naturally drawn toward such traits, so a lot of pets are selected to get these traits more because it makes us feel more love for them by triggering the systems that evolution has made to care for our young. Even we Limaces do this.
Caring for pets
Caring for animals is a lot of work. As I hinted at the beginning. A reason I don’t have pets is because I do not think I could do the job, and I would only create misery for the pets. I want animals and beings to have a good and decent life, I am not it. I don’t even own plants, for the same reason.
For “normal” pets, which are the social kind generally, it is fairly straightforward. You engage them socially on a daily basis and feed them, give them food, and make sure that their waste products are taken care of in accordance with their behaviour. Why can’t dogs use litter boxes? 🙁
For exotic ones, it is much more difficult in some instances and easier in others. The difficult parts are generally what they eat, how they live, and such. But beyond that, they rarely give a fuck about you. If you have one of those god forsaken screeching birds or the likes… yeah, you are fucked if you have not read up on how their social structure works. These are not easy for a reason. I wish there were more restrictions on getting these pets!
Pets and personality
Every creature on your green blue orb has a personality. Some parts of it are inborn and variations of your species, some are very personal based on your experiences. The thing is, what parts are within this inborn behaviour variation depends very much on the species. How the sociality of dogs is and how the sociality of cats is, are very different. People are naturally drawn to people with similar personalities because there are less confrontations and issues then. Or they might just like opposition which is entirely valid, I sure do! And guess what? The same applies to pets.
People are drawn to pets with personalities that they like. Same goes the other way, pets are drawn to personalities in people that they like and grow up being used to. So this can be a nice subtle way to tell about a person's personality. If you do fictional species of pets, make certain to establish how they behave, what they like and are generally drawn toward. This is a nifty way to tell someone's personality without ever stating it even at a rudimentary introduction. Even a pet’s aversion or dislike can show a lot about a person. Imagine a dog resigned to its life beside someone looking anything but happy, what does it tell you about the person they lie next to?
Pets and health
I have been hammering on time and time again here that the love of pets is never enough. And in early civilisations and people, I stand by it. Resources are scarce, times are tough, life is, in general, ultimately and absolutely miserable for everyone. It is only thin threads of happiness that penetrate a life of hardships. This is something many modern western humans forget in the history of your own kind. But you know what one of those thin threads of happiness can be that can carry you through rough times in the past and in modern times?
A warm, kind, loving, dedicated pet that will never give up on you. As you may feel the world crumble and stop caring, your beloved pet will not give up if they are a social animal. A sad moment can be broken with your beloved pet coming over, seeing you sad, and just being there for you. You may not share the same communication, but you got something going. They know you, you know them, and there you are, together, feeling better.
This is why even in the harshest of times, humans have time and time again hesitated and waited until the very last moment to do the unthinkable deed toward their pets. They are not meaningless animals of flesh for utility, but meaningful members of the family. The bonds do matter psychologically, and it is known that a pet, with its love, can do wonders for health, whether physical or psychological.
Summa Summarum
So what have we learned here? Hopefully a lot. In the early days, the utility of pets was important, but social animals will socialise and thus create bonds with other social creatures. This will create meaningful bonds that can easily extend beyond their utility, but it is important to not forget that utility is also very important as any pet is a cost of time, food, and energy.
Another thing is that what becomes “normal pets” are pets that have a social structure similar to the people that inevitably domesticate them. It does not need to be perfectly the same, just similar enough that the beings can relate and learn to understand each other. “Exotic pets”, essentially, are either shows of wealth or vanity. Even today, it is showing “I have so much money I can do this”, and the problem is that in the West, there is much more wealth in general to allow for this kind of pet ownership.
So if you want to make an exotic pet, look above. If you want to make a “normal pet”, make them sociable, social beings that form meaningful relations to themselves, with other beings, and with other species as well. And give them a job that they can perform for their owner so it is a mutualistic relationship.
And remember this, no matter what pet you have: if you own them, show them the respect and dignity that they deserve. And if you write about them, make them meaningful, because pets are meaningful to humans. Anne, what does Lily have to say about this?
(Lily: ≥y iu )
She is a very wise cat. Thank you, Lily!
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Copyright ©️ 2023 Vivian Sayan. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as all ideas about pets are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific ideas such as Lily herself and all language or exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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