This is the 2820th most frequent Japanese word.
飼い
"飼い" means "keeping or raising (animals/pets)."
The word '飼い' here is used in '飼っています' to mean 'to keep as a pet' or 'to raise animals'.
彼女は犬を飼っています。
She has a pet dog.
Here, '飼う' shows the action of raising or taking care of birds as pets, emphasizing the effort involved.
小鳥を飼うのは難しい仕事です。
Raising small birds is a challenging task.
In this sentence, '飼った' refers to the past action of owning and taking responsibility for a pet cat.