In 1830, Sophie Madeleine du Pont (1810-1888), living with her family and many cats, dogs, birds, and deer by the Brandywine Creek in Delaware, wrote to her brother Henry (1812-1889) about the pets he had left behind when he went away to school:
All the family of pets, biped and quadruped, feathered and furred, are in a perfect state of salubrity -- Old Cupid [the family dog] continues the torment of our lives, Griffon [a cat] fights the doves, the parrot squalls, Tom [a mockingbird] has lost his tail, in short they all remain as bad as ever.
Seven years earlier Sophie du Pont had theorized about what it was that drew people to "foster and cherish animals of various sorts." She wrote that often the adoption of pets "springs from an amiable cause, that of a benevolence which seeks to extend itself to surrounding objects and to promote general happiness.
All the family of pets, biped and quadruped, feathered and furred, are in a perfect state of salubrity -- Old Cupid [the family dog] continues the torment of our lives, Griffon [a cat] fights the doves, the parrot squalls, Tom [a mockingbird] has lost his tail, in short they all remain as bad as ever.
Seven years earlier Sophie du Pont had theorized about what it was that drew people to "foster and cherish animals of various sorts." She wrote that often the adoption of pets "springs from an amiable cause, that of a benevolence which seeks to extend itself to surrounding objects and to promote general happiness.
