Jun 30 2007
For the Love of Cats
It was commonly thought that the Egyptians domesticated the cat. However, according to this history of cats, they domesticated themselves–and they did it about 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Near East.
Scientists now believe that today’s 600 million house cats were descended from five female wildcats who wandered into a village and decided to stay when they discovered food in the form of rodents. Sounds just like a cat–feed them and you’ll have friend for life (or, at least, until the food runs out). Anyway, by eating the rodents, the cats protected the grain and everyone was happy, especially when the cats started squeezing out kittens.
Originally, there were five subspecies of wildcat. The domesticated critters are descendants of the Near Eastern wildcat. The other four subspecies are the European wildcat, the Southern African wildcat, the Central Asian wildcat and the Chinese desert cat.
Anyway, it’s interesting reading for those of us who love cats, including this guy.
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