People often assume that owning cats and dogs is an invention of modern Western society and a product of leisure time, beginning in the 16th century. That view, however, is beginning to change. "Pet-keeping might have preceded domestication of farm animals by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years," says Aaron Katcher, associate emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and coauthor of "Between People and Pets: The Importance of Animal Companionship."

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