Though the term “pet” did not exist in the Middle Ages, the concept of the “pet” or “companion animal” has been tantalizing for animal studies across historical periods due to such an animal’s position in human space and its potential for cross-species identification. ... Historical and literary evidence illustrates, however, that people in medieval England sometimes also kept deer as pets, even indoor pets. Although these domestic deer were probably status pets and may not have occasioned the same sort of emotional attachment as a dog, they encourage modern scholars to think more broadly about medieval pets. These domestic deer, along with their half-tame compatriots kept in deer parks and their literary doppelgangers, illustrate that deer were for many medieval people an important “contact zone” with the animal world, one that reveals an intense spatial engagement with cervid bodies and an equally dense empathy with the cervid mind. In contemplating, hunting, and keeping deer, medieval people attempted to see the world through these animals' eyes and even on occasion imagined harmonious possibilities between the human and non-human. - [Author]

Language: English