Take away pets and puzzles and domesticity is a desert. Adam did not have pets in the garden of Eden. Nor did he spend time on crosswords or cubes. So how Adam spent his recreation time remains a matter of speculation. But the attraction of cats, dogs and crosswords is an indispensable feature of modern life if we observe the diligence with which pet-owners and cruciverbalists go about their business.
After Adam came Noah, the first viniculturist. Here perhaps we have the initial indication of a hobby becoming part of the adult programme. Looking after vines and fig-trees was staple employment in the days of the psalmist and King Solomon. But pets, puzzles? If they were part of domestic life we have no idea. In the days of Jesus dogs were regarded as more of a nuisance than a family companion. Cats had an exalted position in the Egyptian scheme of things. They even made it into the ranks of the divine. But anything other than working animals, it seems, was inconceivable. Dogs gained a place in man’s esteem by their talents as working animals, herding, hunting and guarding. So it is that gun-dogs remain a redoubtable sector of the canine assembly, even if they have taken on a new role as family friends good with children.
In the Middle Ages cats acquired another reputation. Thy were associated with witches and familiar spirits. This could, I suppose, be regarded as a working relationship but it did not help their acceptance into the household. The only similar stain on a dog’s reputation came from its having lupine ancestors. Any dog hat howled like a wolf was in greater danger from its ancestry than its eerie howling habit.
Puzzles are not so easily categorised, though they are just as popular. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors enjoyed riddles as much as anybody and the number 666 has fascinated generations of New Testament students. Nowadays verbal and mathematical conundrums are everywhere. Like proverbs they are part of our linguistic store-house. They are probably as old as language itself and the history of star-gazing has stimulated inquiry into ways of comprehending the movements of heavenly bodies. Our Christmas programme may well include puzzles. Not to mention pets.
Pets are enjoyable companions. We can probably leave it at that. It may seem odd that charities caring for particular animals – donkeys, for instance – do as well as those charities caring for children. And leisure, which is an inevitable part of a daily routine in a humane society, has to be filled with something. And jig-saws and all the rest are blameless occupations that meet requirements. ‘The devil finds work for idle hands to do’ and puzzles are one way of thwarting his inroads.
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