Charles Atkinson, age 10, of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, for his question:

 Were there dogs in Bible days?

The people who lived in Bible days shared the world with many different dogs. For a long time, all of them were wild and often fierce and unfriendly. In fact, none of the animals were friendly until people taught them how to be tame. This may have started in Stone Age days, when our ancestors lived in caves and went out to hunt for their food.

Perhaps the first dogs became half tame about 20,000 years ago. They went with human hunters to track down game. They were rewarded with delicious meals when the family roasted meat over the campfire. Much later, people settled down to farming and their dogs learned other duties. In the Middle East, about 8,000 years ago, there were greyhounds and various breeds of work dogs and show dogs. Some say that the dogs were the first animals tamed by man    and they have been our friends almost from the beginning.