Byron was a lover of furry creatures; the most notable addition to his pet collection was a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain (you can really tell this guy was a poet). Byron loved Boatswain so much that when the dog contracted rabies, Byron nursed it back to health despite the risk of becoming bitten and infected.
Alas, Byron and Boatswain were forcefully separated when Byron became a student at Cambridge, by Cambridge’s no-dog policy. Byron very cunningly noticed that while the school’s policy prohibited dogs, it did not prohibit bears. Therefore, out of resentment, Byron kept a tame bear as a pet while he was a student at Cambridge. The college authorities did not have a legal basis for complaining; Byron even suggested that he would apply for a college fellowship for the bear.
During his lifetime, in addition to numerous dogs and horses, Byron kept a fox, four monkeys, a parrot, five cats, an eagle, a crow, a crocodile, a falcon, five peacocks, two guinea hens, an Egyptian crane, a badger, three geese, a heron and a goat with a broken leg.