Great Blue Marble - Amazing Animal Images and Animal Facts Three - Images of Pets, Dogs, Cats, and Farm Animals.

Dogs	Puppies	Kittens	Cats

All dogs are likely descended from an animal called Tomarctus. This animal lived approximately 15 million years ago. The earliest "fossil" finds of dogs date back to 10,000 BC.	Stone-aged people tamed dogs to help them track game. About eight thousand years ago, ancient Egyptians raised Saluki hunting dogs. Greyhounds are the most ancient dog breed.	Kittens are born with both eyes and ears closed. When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change color over a period of months to the final eye color. When well treated, a cat can live twenty or more years.	All cats are members of the family Felidea. Interestingly enough, the cat family split from the other mammals at least 40,000,000 years ago, making them one of the oldest mammalian families.

The United States and France have the most pet dogs. Almost one in three families in these countries own a dog. Germany and Switzerland have the least pet dogs, they only have one dog for every ten families.	Ancient Chinese royalty carried Pekingese dogs in the sleeves of their royal robes. The basenji, an African wolf dog, is the only dog that cannot bark. Basenji dogs and wild Australian dingoes are virtually identical.	If left to her own devices, a female cat may have three to seven kittens every four months. This is why population control using neutering and spaying is so important. A cat is pregnant for about 58-65 days.	All cats share certain characteristics that are unique to the cat family. Cats have five toes on each front paw, but only four toes on each back paw. Cats have true fur, in that they have both an undercoat and an outer coat.

Argos or Argus, Ulysses' dog, was the only creature to recognize the Greek hero when he returned home disguised as a beggar after 20 years of adventure. Laika became the world's first space traveler. Russian scientists sent the small dog aloft in an artificial earth satellite in 1957.	A dog can hear sounds 250 yards away that most people cannot hear beyond 25 yards. The human ear can detect sound waves vibrating at frequencies up to 20,000 times a second. But dogs can hear sound waves that vibrate at frequencies of more than 30,000 times a second.	Contrary to popular belief, the cat is a social animal. A pet cat will respond and answer to speech, and enjoys human companionship. Unlike humans and dogs, cats do not suffer a lot from loneliness. Cats are social to a degree, but they are far more concerned with territorial issues.	The gene in cats that causes the orange coat is linked to the X chromosome. This gene may display orange or black. Thus, a female cat with two X chromosomes may have orange and black colors in it's coat. A male, with only one X chromosome, can have only orange or black, not both.

Dogs cannot see as well as humans. The common belief that dogs are color blind is false. Dogs can see color but it is not as vivid a color scheme as we see. It is much like our vision at twilight. A dog sees objects first by their movement, second by their brightness, and third by their shape.	There are 701 types of pure breed dogs. Irish Wolfhounds rank as the largest dog, and Chihuahuas the smallest dog. The St. Bernard is the heaviest dog and other breeds range in size between these extremes. Newfoundland dogs have webbed feet, making them strong and agile swimmers.	Cats do not think that they are little people. They think that we are big cats. This influences their behavior in many ways. Cats have AB blood groups just like people. To purr, cats use extra tissue in the larynx (voice box). This tissue vibrates when cats purr.	A cat cannot see directly under its nose. This is why the cat cannot seem to find tidbits on the floor. Most cats have no eyelashes. Cats have powerful jaws, long, sharp teeth, and claws that draw back into their paws when not in use.

A dog's heart beats between 70 and 120 times a minute, compared with a human heart which beats 70 to 80 times a minute. A dog's sense of smell is about 1000 times better than a person's.	The bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American court of law.	You can tell a cat's mood by looking into its eyes. A frightened or excited cat will have large, round pupils. An angry cat will have narrow pupils.	Cats lack a true collarbone. Because of this lack, cats can generally squeeze their bodies through any space they can get their heads through.


Dalmatian puppies are pure white when they're born. Big dogs have larger litters than smaller dogs, but smaller dogs generally live much longer than larger dogs.	Smartest dogs: 1) border collie; 2) poodle; 3) golden retriever. Dumbest dog: afghan. Do dogs dream? Researchers are almost positive that dogs have dreams too.	Cats are pure carnivores. They need a high level of protein in their diets - around 30% - and lack the digestive equipment to do well on a diet of grains, fruits or vegetables.	Cats hear extremely well. Their eyes are adapted for vision in dim light for hunting just before dawn and just after dusk, the prime hunting periods.
Young Horses	Horses	Farm Animals	Farm Art & Facts

		The hand of human breeders is obvious. An estimated 90 pig breeds and 200 pig varieties can now be recognized.	Each rooster can recognize the crow of at least 30 other roosters. A group of chicks is referred to as a "brood."
An average life span for a horse is around 20 -25 years, though they can live for up to 30 years. The oldest recorded horse was "Old Billy," an English barge horse, who lived to be 62 years old. Old Billy who was foaled in 1760 and died in 1822.	The world's horse population is estimated at 75,000,000. Horses belong to the equus family. Equus comes from the ancient Greek word meaning quickness. Horses are mammals in the same family as zebras, mules, and donkeys.	A sow's pregnancy lasts a little less than 4 months (114 days) and she gives birth to 8-12 pigs in a litter. Pigs generally have 44 teeth, including two enlarged canines in each jaw that grow upward and outward to form tusks.
			Cows �moo' to each other fairly frequently allowing them to maintain contact even when they cannot see each other. Cows have 300 degree panoramic vision, much more than humans. Their only blind spot is directly behind them.
There are five basic horse colors: bay, black, brown, chestnut, gray, and white (albino). Albino horses are the only true white horses. All white horses descended from Old King, an albino horse whose offspring were always born white, regardless of the mare's color.	The modern horse first evolved in North America from the Eohippus, or "Dawn Horse". That evolving species died out, but not before its descendants crossed the land bridge between North America and Asia. Once there it evolved over 50 million years to become the horse we know today.
		Some pigs are really BIG! The largest was a 2, 552 pound porker named Big Bill, who stood 5' 9" at the shoulder.

It was the Romans that introduced the horse in sport, bringing us the chariot races. The Greeks soon followed with the first horse and rider horse race, around 600 BC. During this time, many religions believed that animals were Gods and there were some horses that were given mythical properties, like the winged Pegasus and the horned unicorn.	The Greeks used the horse for the first Pony Express, and although the Chinese were the first to invent the saddle, it was the Greeks who first gave us the horseshoe, although it wasn't much like the shoes worn by today's horses. It was the Greeks who also gave us the most famous horse in history, the Trojan Horse, which they used to fell the people of Troy and thus win a long war.	Pig insulin is used by humans suffering from Diabetes to help control their glucose levels. Generally, 8 to 12 piglets are born to a litter. The largest number of piglets born in a single litter was 34. The two day birth occurred in Denmark in 1961. Despite their penchant for wallowing in mud, pigs are very clean. Pigs always keep their toilet far from their living area. Even newborns do this.	Hay is a mixture of different plants, including grasses, alfalfa, clover and timothy. Hay is used as a food source for animals. Hay is dried for several days and then baled. It is essential for the days following cutting to be dry. Any moisture left in the plant creates mold so if it rains during the process the hay is ruined. That is where the phrase "Make hay while the sun shines" originates.

The mother horse, or mare, is pregnant (or "in foal") for 11 months. Most mares give birth in the spring to a single baby (foal) although twins are not uncommon. Mares produce milk for their young and will feed them for several months. It is possible to age a horse fairly accurately up to10 years of age by their teeth. It is more difficult to age adult horses by their teeth.	There are over 350 different breeds of horses and ponies. These fall into 4 main groups: 1.)"light" horses with small bones, 2.)"heavy" or draft horses which can weigh up to 2000 pounds, 3.) ponies which are usually not more than 58 inches tall, 4.) feral horses which are wild or semi-wild horses. Horses are measured by the width of a human hand - 4 inches or 10 centimeters.	All chickens are descendants of the jungle fowls of Asia. Some studies found that the chickens' wild ancestors spent up to 85% of the daytime foraging. The first chickens were domesticated in 3000 BC. The rooster is the national bird of France. Chickens have no teeth and instead use a part of their stomach called the gizzard to grind up their food.	Potatoes are grown by farmers in all U.S. States, and in about 125 countries. Potato chips are a favorite snack. Americans eat 1.2 billion pounds each year. Straw is a by-product of oats and wheat. Straw is used for bedding. After the grain is harvested away, the plant it grows on is left to dry. Because the grain is gone, little nutrition is left for the animals.

Within 1-2 hours of birth a foal is able to stand up and walk. When foals are born their legs are almost the same length as they are when they are fully grown - their legs are so long they find it difficult to reach down to the grass to eat!	Upon completion of the 1938 movie 'Robin Hood' featuring Errol Flynn, the horse that Maid Marion rode was sold to Roy Rogers - who renamed it Trigger. All horses share the same birth-date of January 1st, no matter when they were born.	One cow can give 200,000 glasses of milk in a lifetime. Big Bertha was the oldest living cow. She was 49 when she died in 1994 in Backwater, Ireland. Cows can learn their names and come running to you when called.	Turkey eggs are twice as big as chicken eggs. They are pale creamy tan with brown speckles and hatch in 28 days. Chickens (all birds in fact) have more bones in their neck than giraffes!

	A horse's teeth are constantly changing throughout it's lifetime. As they grow older their teeth grow longer, and that's where the phrase "Long in the tooth" comes from.	Sheep were the first animal to be domesticated, as long ago as 5000-4000 B.C. Typical colors of sheep are brown, tan, black, gray and spotted, but they can range as far afield as dark blue, gold and rose.	Keeping sheep for their milk was common in medieval England. The old English word for this kind of dairy, "wich" survives in the names of such towns as Norwich and Ipswich.
The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.	In the wild horse world, the mare decides when and where the herd will go while the stallion follows.	Domesticated geese can live for up to 25 years. In 1976, a gander named George in Lancashire, England lived to be 49 years old!	Male chickens are called roosters, female chickens are called hens and babies are called chicks.
The four natural paces for the horse are the walk, trot, canter and gallop.