History and Domestication of the Cat

HISTORY AND DOMESTICATION OF THE CAT

I have been around cats most of my adult life. I love everything about the soft, purring, furry wonderful little creatures.
It's an addiction I share with about half the worlds population. Cats, throughout history, have played many roles to their
human counter parts. We have feared and hated or loved and worshipped them. The foretellers of evil or the saviors of
our souls. Cats have never been ignored. From their graceful movements to their cunning, stealth stalking mode, there
is nothing like a cat.

That, furry little friend, who is purring and sitting on your lap right now, can trace it's family tree back 34 million years.
That may sound like a long time to us, but somewhere deep inside your cat, that cat remembers. Instincts, are the basis
for a cats behavior. No matter how cute, cuddly and innocent they look, each Felis catus has the instincts of a wildcat.

The basic model, claws, fangs, flexible backbone and strength makes cats one of the most successful predators on the
planet. From tigers to house cats the design is a flawless one and has enabled felids to adapt to the environmental
changes that each new era have brought.

As any cat person will tell you, we don't keep cats, cats allow us to be a part of their lives. They don't use the weaponry
that has effectively allowed them to survive all this time on us, because they have become fond of their humans. Cats
have never given up all their wild ways and never will. They wouldn't be the furry creatures that we cherish, if they did.

Proailurus, was the first to evolve in the cat family. It lived in the Oligocene Epoch about 35 - 23 million years ago.
It looked and behaved much like our furry friends do now. It is believed that all true cat species large and small,
came from this 20 pound predator.

The cats of today are more directly link to a small African wildcat, Felis Silvestris Lybic. Weighing 10 - 18 pounds,
sleek of body, with tic long and short hair, it would be difficult to distinguish from the cats we having living with us.
The colors and patterns vary from regional habit to habit. They can be found in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

The African wildcat is actually a subspecies of the European wildcat. At about 250,000 years old, the European
wildcat is thought to be the oldest of the wildcat species, and a descendant of the now extinct Martelli's cat, that
evolved 11 million years ago. From the European variety, the 3 other wildcat groups developed,( Asiatic, African,
and Domestic).

In this era, we have divided the wild cats into 4 groups, Felis Felis silvestris silvestris, our European wildcat,
Felis silvestris ornata, the Asistic, and Felis silvestris lybic from Africa. The fourth cat group is Felis silvestris catus
- the domestic cat. There are dozens of subspecies in each group.

Cats were one of the last animals to be domesticated, which is why they have retained so many of their natural
behaviors. Cats have only been, what we like to think of as tamed for a few million years. Some would say the
cats are not tamed in the true sense of the word but rather that humans and cats have a symbiotic relation.
No matter how you'd classify are furry friends, there is nothing else like a cat.

It is thought that cats first began living among humans about 5000 years ago. It is thought that the ancient
Egyptians, were the first humans to be graced by the cat. Cats were kept to keep the rats out of stored grain
supplies along the Nile. The Egyptians also used cats to hunt fish and birds.

Cats were considered valuable and laws protected it. A religious cult developed that worshiped cats and lasted
for over 2000 years. The cat goddess Bastet became one of the most scared figured worshipped. She was
represented with the head of a cat. Soon after all cats became scared to the Egyptians and were well cared for.

After a cat's death, its body was mummified and buried in a special cemetery. One cemetery found in the 1800s
contained the preserved bodies of more than 300,000 cats. The Egyptians had laws prohibiting the export of cats.
Due to the cats prized rat catching abilities they were taken by the Greeks and Romans to most parts of Europe.
Domestic cats were also found in India, China, and Japan where they were prized as pets as well as rodent catchers.

Fate being what it is, the cats so loved and worshipped in the ancient world were branded as evil in the medieval
times. In Europe in the Middle Ages, cats became to object of superstition. Cats were hunted, tortured and
sacrificed, often by burning them alive. Cats came close to extinction during this period of time and rats flourished
The over population of rats was the contributing factor for the Black Plague.

By the seventeenth century, fate had again smiled on cats and it was becoming fashionable to keep them as pets
and breed them, especially the long hair breeds. Many European noble's had cats as pets, as did writers in
England and France. It was those writers who first started to write about the good qualities of cats. By the late 1800s
cat shows were being held in England and the United States and cat fanciers' organizations were established.

It is unfortunate that so many of the bad superstitions associated with cats still linger yet today. Black cats are
usually the last to be adopted at shelters. During October many shelters will not adopt out black cats, fearing
for their safety during Halloween.

Worshipped as goddess or feared as an agent of the Devil, sacrificed to evil spirits or cherished for its
powers of healing--the fortunes of the cat have fluctuated throughout history. Cats have never been
ignored; people have always felt something about them.