Imagine a living safari in your backyard where wolves chase bobcats, and deer munch on your hedges. Imagine rare exotic birds nesting in your trees, while the even rarer non-flying birds strut around on your lawn. Occasionally, a fox or a ferret might dart from one bush to another, making sure the larger predators of your Wild Kingdom don't catch them.

Dreams such as these used to be fulfilled only by taking long and tedious trips to the wild where you would have to spend days, or weeks tracking and trapping the animals. But those days are over. To collect rare, exotic and sometimes wild pets you only need to trap them in the World Wide Web.

The Net cares about your pet

Killer canines

Here kitty, kitty ...

Animal advice

Net Pet Home

The Internet has become the pet store for hard-to-find companions for the animal lover with peculiar tastes. Wolf dogs, wildcats, red deer, emus, ostriches, llamas, prairie dogs, dama wallabies and just about any other type of pet you could think of is only a mouse click away. And you don't have to be Michael Jackson to own a monkey either.

To get you started on your backyard safari, you only need to dial in to the Internet and search for the animal you desire. One of the best sites to find exotic pet breeders is Pets4You.com. It has an easy to follow directory that gives the breeders' information and even tells you what state they are in and whether or not they can ship the animal to you. Pets4You also offers individual Web sites for breeders so that they can post pictures of their pups, kittens, chicks or babies. The classified section offers everything from domestic dogs to goats to Patagonian cavies.

If your taste for the exotic extends to furry companions, then the World Wide Web is the international pet store for you. Your neighbors can either be jealous of your cuddly curiosity, or live in fear of your ferocious feline. Forget pit bulls and Siamese cats. Ocelots and wolf dogs can not only be companions, but neighborhood attractions as well.

© copyright by Cat Bytes; Magazine produced by online students of the journalism department, California State University, Chico. Page maintained by Dr. Glen Bleske.