We've been keeping pets as a species for considerably longer than we've had cities. It's basically an ingrained part of how we react to animals now.

In dwarf fortress you can have dragons as pets. Never got there, tho I think I will train dogs in my current fortress.

	▲	manarth 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sadly not known to breathe fire, but on the plus side, less likely to burn your house down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogona

Beyond that, longer than we've had the written word.

Domestication of animals might be the single greatest achievement of humans.

	▲	soiltype an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Aren't cities older than writing?