Spot the Frippet: pet.

 Are you teacher's (or boss's) pet? If not, who is?

If you have no teacher or boss, or if you have a teacher or boss who likes/hates all his or her (OGAA)* pupils equally, then of course there are non-human kinds of pets.

They come in a variety of shapes and sizes:

photo by Klearchos Kapoutsis

photo by Helgi Halldórsson

photo by Andrew Bishop

photo by Stephen Michael Barnett

but it does seem to be a deeply human thing to want to share food and shelter with a creature of a different species.

It's rather puzzling behaviour, especially as many pets don't, as far as I can see, show much sign of appreciating all the care and affection lavished on them.

Are pets child-substitutes? Yes, sometimes. Friend-substitutes? Sometimes. Guard, blanket, ornament substitutes? Tick, tick, tick.

Why anyone would keep cockroaches as pets, though, escapes me.

But people do.

photo from Husond 

Spot the Frippet: a pet. This word appeared in English in the 1500s, but there's no agreement about where it came from before that.

*Other Genders Are Available.