Pets in the HonorVerse

I have a 12 pound mutt that looks and behaves like a border collie. She would be a great pet for treecats. They could play ball or frizbee for hours on end together. She already knows that there are cats you can play with and others you can't. I had a mean kitty when she was a puppy and she learned to respect the cat.

A no so good pet would be a hamster. Cute, small and fun to play with.... and a snack with its heart let go.

Kizarvexis wrote:With the Treecat claws and attitude, I don't see a problem intimidating a pet.

Now I agree the treecat would probably need to raise the pet from infancy. Humans domesticated the traditional pets (dogs/cats) over the millennia, so without raising the pet, I see problems of the pet seeing the treecat as a rival animal instead of a master.

Interestingly, many researchers now think that domestication of dogs from wolves happened relatively quickly. Initially by wolves self-selecting for those with a relatively short "flight distance", who gained a survival edge by learning to follow human hunting parties and thus gaining access to the meat left on carcasses by the hunters. Then by humans selectively breeding those semi-domesticated wolves which would approach most closely.

looksbeforeheleaps wrote:

Kizarvexis wrote:With the Treecat claws and attitude, I don't see a problem intimidating a pet.

Now I agree the treecat would probably need to raise the pet from infancy. Humans domesticated the traditional pets (dogs/cats) over the millennia, so without raising the pet, I see problems of the pet seeing the treecat as a rival animal instead of a master.

Interestingly, many researchers now think that domestication of dogs from wolves happened relatively quickly. Initially by wolves self-selecting for those with a relatively short "flight distance", who gained a survival edge by learning to follow human hunting parties and thus gaining access to the meat left on carcasses by the hunters. Then by humans selectively breeding those semi-domesticated wolves which would approach most closely.

You can think of domestication as having a couple stages: evolving adaptations to live profitably near humans without the humans being too inclined to drive you off, and humans controlling breeding to select traits to make the breed even more welcome. It's a model that would apply across domesticated plants and animals. You can also adapt it for training individuals as pets: selecting those already inclined to live nearby for mutual benefit (or at least toleration), and training them to be even less obnoxious and/or more useful.

Treecats have taken to domesticating plants at least, though I'm not sure how far they got on that before seeing humanity's agricultural model. I don't recall anything yet about treecat animal domestication, as livestock, working animals, or pets. Fire Season had one predator, specific to a given location, that was used by canny treecats to control access to their nest from that direction, but since it was normally there and they placed the nest to take advantage of it, I wouldn't call that domestication in any sense. It's certainly an instance of a potential precursor though.

If there's something on Sphinx that would have a wolfish ecology, maybe it could move in on them like proto-dogs did on humans. Treecats being as small as they are, more naturally dangerous than humans, and more carnivorous, all suggest, however, that those encounters are much more likely than human/proto-dog ones to end up with one or the other party thinking too much of the other as a potential meal rather than as an interesting part of the scenery that does not demand fight or flight.

In the case of dogs, there's some reason to think that, by now, they may have a heritable recognition of two-legged sorts that smell human as potential pack-members-kinda - at any rate, not just to be put in the "threat", "meal", or "moving scenery piece" categories. Nothing from Earth would have that yet regarding treecats. So raising the potential pet from birth among treecats so that they are definitely not assigned that kind of category may be more important: shape individual behavior with a lot more attention, because genetics is not helping in this case.

--big grinning snip--

JeffEngel wrote:In the case of dogs...

Having acquired several pound pups (younger dogs), many breeds that hadn't previously interacted with our domesticated felines, they've seemed mostly socially curious about potential playmates... until said cats turned claws on their canine brethren for seemingly no reason at all. Obviously the cats disagree, seems to be those silly dogs aren't all that good at personal space and where they sniff, etc.

Treecats (being measurably smarter than terrestial cats) are likely going to not need the claws to impress those other weird four legs with teeth. That said, you'll notice I'm not suggesting that every breed of dog would do well in this mix.

That said, I wonder what a 'cat would think of some of the smarter earth simians like an orangutan or chimp?, etc. Would they teach them to sign? some version that the humans don't speak so they could snicker at us behind their backs? would some of the 'cats swim with/surf with the dolphins, etc.?

Treecats were at the time of there discovery, just beginning to understand farming by observing humans. Prior to that they were primarily gatherers and opportunistic farmers e.g. watering and weeding plants where they grew. Also don't forget Valiant aka Dirt Grubber who was doing his own form of research into farming. IIRC Valiant was tending 3 different gardens (one at Harrington House, one at the Pharris house and the last with his clan) and was trying to figure out why plants in the greenhouse were growing better than any of the other two places were.

If you are thinking Treecats possibly having pets from animals that evolved on Earth, you might want to consider the "domesticated" Ferret. They have 2.5 modes. 1) sleeping, 2) burning with curiosity/running about like a 3yr old on sugar/attacking (mock or actual) and .5 eating, making nice with human holding/petting/providing a warm nook to snuggle into.

This is something a Treecat can understand and interact with. Not the single-minded cold-blooded killing machine of the Ferret's cousin the Weasel (or Mink or Fisher or Wolverine etc) but an active hunter that will explore and "play" with you and not take off fingers or worse. Ferrets CAN learn the boundries of "polite" behavior with humans so figureing out what a Treecat will and will not tolerate shouldn't be hard.

On the other hand, Ferrets are really really good about finding holes and ways out of almost anything so keeping some from going wild out of household on a planet will present a challenge. I suspect a breeding pair of Ferrets could seriously compromise local ecology since they are tricky and persistant devils who understand the idea of running away to eat another day if they run into something that would make a meal of them.