Pet keeping has been a subject for occasional satire for a long time.  In the future, I’ll offer a post on satires of “lady’s pets,” lap dogs in particular.  This small trade card offers a distinctively Victorian satirical take on pet keeping by equating the obnoxious small boy and the array of animals: everyone in the window is a “pet.”

In Pets in America, I discuss how this cultural equation developed, as the status of children and also of selected animals was raised thanks to sentimental culture’s particular domestic logic.  I do love the work of this anonymous illustrator. The small card (no larger than four inches by two inches) is laugh-out-loud funny. Feel free to cut and paste!