James Redstone

History of Domestic Cats.



Posted: Monday, June 06, 2005

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Domestic cats first came about in Egypt around 4000 B.C. The Egyptians had to store their grain, but rodents would get into the stores. . The nearby wildcats, not afraid of humans, saw this as an easy chance for food. Gradually, the Egyptians realized that these wildcats protected their supplies of grain. To attract wildcats to their homes, the Egyptians would leave scraps of meat out. The wildcats would eat the meat, and go into the houses to find more. Once inside, they would find rodents to eat. The Egyptians would pet their feline helpers, and the wildcats would sense this as a sign of affection. No predators lived in the Egyptian villages, so the wildcats returned more and more often.  Soon, the wildcats had dropped their wild nature and became the first domestic cats.

 The cat became an important part of Egyptian life, and around 1500 B.C. became sacred. One who killed a cat was put to death. Taking cats out of the country was prohibited. If a cat dies, the proper thing to do was shave your eyebrows in mourning. Cats were even said to be physical embodiments of gods and goddesses. The Egyptian cat population grew very high, so the restriction on taking cats out of the country was lifted. Cats became very popular in Europe and Asia.

 The cat fell from favor in Europe in 1300s A.D. Their glowing eyes, stealthy prowl, and ability to survive falls gave them a demonic look. Many cats were killed, which led to a massive soar in the rodent population. These same rodents carried the bubonic “black death" plague, which killed about ¼ Europeans.

  The cat remained unpopular until the 1600s, when they were used as rodent hunters. Spanish explorers brought cats to the Aztecs. Many settlers brought cats to North America to repel the rodents there. Most of the cats in North America are descendants from these cats. The general opinion of cats improved, but the superstition of black cats being bad luck has remained to this day.    

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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)
» left by Nicole Christensen
from Kingsburg,Ca. 5 years 263 days ago.
I like your article on
» left by Jo Ann from Addison, Texas 3 years 60 days ago.
Thank you for your article on domestication of cats.  It was very personalble and interesting.  Could you write more on the type of wild cats which were domesticated.  How did our domestic cats become so much smaller than their wild counterparts.  Were they bred to be smaller varieties or were the wild cats smaller at the time Egyptians took them in as pets?   Thank you for increasing my knowledge on these wonderful animals.  We have been fortunate enough to find and keep a family of cats.  They are far more social than I ever imagined cats to be as most of the cats I had known before were taken away from their natural mothers at a young age.
Jo Ann
» left by krissy leigh
from united state 5 years 99 days ago.
i thank you for this artical krissy leigh
» left by Kayla
from Pulaski 4 years 292 days ago.
Thanks for this artical it really helps!!!!!!
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