Google recently released an extensive collection of hosted images from the archives of Life Magazine. It's remarkable how timeless our affection for our four legged friends carries on throughout time. People often think we get far too carried away nowadays, but lots of things we think are recent developments are just as they've always been. As they say, "The more things change..."

Starlets With Tiny Dogs

Paris Hilton and her Chihuahua Tinkerbell didn't start the glamor gal tiny dog craze. Jane Mansfield, sex symbol of the 50's (they even had those back then!), reads the paper with her pet Chihuahua in this March, 1956 photo.

Pet Funerals

The pet urn business is booming. Many people think that's just a bit over the top, and a sign that we've gotten too attached to little furballs. But lo, this 1956 photo shows a bunch of otherwise stoic-looking brutes crying as they bury man's best friend in a cemetery dedicated to the purpose.

Pets in Purses

Yes, people even carried their dogs around in dog totes, cutesy dog carriers and dog purses. Case in point: this 1964 Parisian woman. The French have always been fashion trend-setters, you know.

Exotic Pets

The newly "invented" Ashera Cat is really nothing new. There are dozens of photos in the archive of people who kept Ocelots as pets, such as this one taken in 1961.

Inseparable Pets

Dogs go with us everywhere, now. Actually, they went everywhere back in the day, too. Take this 1947 photo, captioned, "War veteran Pat Callaghan (L), 20, an Iowa Univ. student, sitting in religion class w. his pet black cocker spaniel Timmy O'Toole, who accompanys him to all classes on campus."

Hilton's Pets

Check out this lovely young New York socialite, Martha Cuneo, then girlfiend of Conrad Hilton (great grandfather of Paris Hilton and Nicky Hilton), auditioning for the role of hotel heiress later made famous by Paris herself. The dog's name? Waldorf. Alas, Martha may have been trying a bit too hard, as the romance didn't work out. Conrad eventually went on to marry 3 other women (not all at once). Among them, Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Dogs Riding Drivers' Laps

This ticks a lot of people off. How can you drive with your dog sitting on your lap, between you and the steering wheel? Fortunately, airbags weren't an issue back then. Neither were seatbelts, actually. Here Robert F. Kennedy drives with his springer spaniel in his lap and his son beside him in 1966. Clearly a lover of dogs, he named his son, seated next to him, Max.

Humanizing Our Pets

Letting the little guys eat with us at the table? That's absurd! Oh, wait...here's another old picture, with a frickin' raccoon, too! Don't tell me people didn't cut loose with their pets a bit back in the days of grumpy black and white photographs!

Just One More...

This one? I have no idea what this one proves. From the looks of it, though, it's just proof that animals have always destroyed our homes. Look at those walls!