养 is used for raising living things: pets (养猫, 养狗), children (养孩子), and even plants (养花).
culture
The traditional character 養 has 食 (food) at the bottom - nurturing requires feeding.
Components
pictograph
养yǎng
to raise; to nourish
Heavily simplified from 養, which clearly depicted 羊 (sheep) on top of 食 (food/eat) - literally feeding livestock. The modern 养 collapses both halves into a streamlined nine-stroke shape retaining only a schematic outline of the sheep above. No canonical Kangxi assignment survives the reform; modern simplified schemes file 养 under 八 or 丷.
Filed under radical 八 (bā, #12) by convention. 八 is not a separate component in 养, so no strokes are highlighted.
