Futuristic Pets

Another "what if" scenario. Those of us who have pets love them and enjoy them. Typical pets are dogs and cats today. Though some of us have made pets of some exotics. What if in the Metazoic, there were humans around, or some humanoid creatures around (say aliens take over here), what kind of animals of that period would they have as pets? The mammals of tomorrow for sure will be more intelligent than those today. So would aliens. What kind of animals would make the best candidates for domestication? Well, over the years I have thought up some interesting ideas.

For tomorrow's 'house cats', I thought Paricteria (formerly known as Donnola) would be a good candidate. They are good mousers, clean, intelligent and at times even would be funny. They climb and jump as good as cats, maybe better. So in some ways they might be a pest in that they would love to jump on your kitchen countertops. They would love to cuddle up with their owners to keep warm, and like cats they might even try to "groom" their owners with their bristly tongue. One drawback about these animals is unlike cats, they are not very independant. Being pack animals, they would be more into seeing their owners as a pack leader, more like a dog. But that would also make them more compatable to newcomers should the owner of the future decide to have more than one of these animals.

For tomorrow's "dogs" I thought Ictocamelus or Tamanoa would be good subjects. They too are pack animals, and would see their owner as the pack leader. They are also very defensive of their territory, and would ward off intruders. The only drawback of that is, even a lone Ictocamelus could very easily kill the intruder! It'd be like having a 20-foot long tiger guarding your house! And there wouldn't be much the owner could do to stop it because these animals move so fast. But one good thing is, unlike dogs, since the sense of smell in Ictocamelus and Tamanoa is no better than our own, they wouldn't be sniffing their owner's butt. Dogs are psycho animals in that respect because really, they get more pleasure in sniffing peoples' butt than they do licking their face! Ictocamelus and Tamanoa though rely more on sight and hearing than smell. So they would more recognize their owners by their voices than by their scent.

I was thinking, if they were around now, I would have Tamanoa for protecting the house and family. Then for a pet to cuddle, I'd love to have an animal like Mesocheirus, which is actually a lemur, since mice don't bother me I don't really care to have a mouser. Mesocheirus is a very cuddly-looking lemur, and it would be fun to have a lemur for a pet! Though even they would have drawbacks. Lemurs have to jump from place to place, and these lemurs, though they are the size of a common house cat, would be jumping around and knocking things over. But they are social animals, and love to cuddle with each other at night, and groom each other. They might like doing the same with their owner as well.