There has been much talk recently on the Lilypad about getting a new pet (!!), now those that know me will know that we have a cat. A somewhat crazy cat that loves to bring us presents and I am not entirely sure that I can cope with the delivery of any more mice, frogs or birds at the moment, so we decided to look at what else might suit our family.

There are definitely two tupes of people, those that love animals and those that don't and although different nations have different attitudes to them we all favour some pets over others. Here are the four most popular pets worldwide which are dogs, cats, birds and fish and with vetinary costs spiralling, it pays to choose someone like More Th>n who can offer insurance for your pets.

Cats and Dogs

The most popular pets worldwide are dogs and cats, however there is some confusion about which are the most popular. While it used to be thought that there were many more cats than dogs, in fact pet dogs outnumber pet cats by a factor of two. A report published by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) estimates that there are 432 million pet dogs and 272 million pet cats.

People keep pets for a variety of reasons, and this varies from country to country, but overall 49% of pets are kept for companionship; 43% for guard; 5% for hunting; 2% for religious reasons, and 1% for herding. It is also interesting to look at how this varies across various continents. In Europe the order of importance for keeping pets is companionship, guarding, hunting, and working (mainly herding) while in Africa it is guarding, hunting, herding, companionship.

Birds

Birds are the third most popular pets and again there are a number of reasons why we keep them. One of these is that compared to cats and dogs they make inexpensive pets. All they need is a little food and water.

Although we think of dogs as intelligent, so too are birds; they have much more intelligence than they are usually credited with. They are even clever enough to use tools, which is more than dogs can do. They don’t need walking, house training or even a litter box; cleaning out a bird cage is very simple. We keep them because of their beauty, their companionship, and also sometimes for guard duties which include warning of intruders and chasing them away.

Fish

In terms of the numbers that are kept as pets fish far outnumber all other kids of pets, but the reason is that people who keep fish tend to keep large numbers of them.

Keeping fish has been popular for hundreds if not thousands of years. Originally kept for food, in Japan it was traditional to keep brightly coloured koi and goldfish as pets 2,000 years ago. In Ancient Samaria fish were kept in ponds for aesthetic reasons, and in Ancient Egypt they were kept in temples. In Europe carp were kept both for aesthetic reasons and for food.

There is something particularly calming about watching fish swim in an aquarium tank or in an outdoor pool, and keeping fish can be inexpensive, but fish can also make expensive pets. For instance some koi can cost many thousands of pounds for a single specimen which is light years away from the goldfish I won as a child at the fair! I am not even sure that they do this anymore.

So in the end, I think a fish may end up being the new pet on the Lilypad, I just hope the cat doesn't choose to go fishing!

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This post is in collaboration with More Than.