Dogs

Man’s best friend. Beloved member of the family. We haven’t always called dogs our pets, and it wasn’t all that long ago that we invited them to live in our homes. The nearly 58 million pet dogs that live in the United Stated come from a wild family. Scientists call it the Canidae family. Its members, known as canids or canines, include wolves, coyotes, foxes, jackals, and wild dogs such as the bush dog and the raccoon dog. But proof of early civilizations such as the Ancient Egyptians and Romans had domesticated dogs as pets proves our intimate and long-term relationship with the species.