Where Did Pet Cats Come From?
When did people start keeping cats as pets? What did they look like? How did they compare with the cats we know and love now? Some of this we know for sure, but some of this we have to speculate since we weren’t there. What we do know is that, compared with our pet dogs, cats did not undergo as much change and alteration over the time they have been living with humans.
Most cats came to live with humans through a mutual agreement. As humans started farming and storing their crops, we started storing grains (rice, wheat, oats). Small mammals like mice and rats would find grain stores and other food in human villages and homes. Thus the cats came along to hunt these little animals and feed themselves. This relationship started over 3000 years ago even before the Ancient Egyptians famously worshiped cats.
Over time, we tolerated the cats living close to us and they feared humans less. We would often allow them to take shelter in and near our homes. We then encouraged all their natural behaviours of hunting as this provided us humans an easy pest control system and helped keep us protected from disease. In many countries and communities cats still help fulfil this role. Farm cats are a great example of this. Over time we also started to interact with the young kittens and sometimes give table scraps and other food to these cats. Slowly this changed their view of us and allowed them to become more domesticated over time.
It wasn’t until the late 1800’s we started to breed cats for desired appearances and companionship. We changed the look of cats quite a lot over the last 300 years, but this is still much less than has been done with the domesticated dogs breeds we have today. Through genetic analysis we now know that our beloved domestic cat genes are almost identical to Felis sylvestris lybica, the African Wildcat. This gorgeous cat still exists today and can be found hunting solitarily, most often at night. It has a tabby like shorthair coat, but is noted to have longer legs, and a much more sandy appearance in colour. This colouring gives it much more camouflaged look in the African savannahs where it roams large territories for prey.
Due to our late interventions in the domesticated cat’s genetics, they still have many of the same traits as their ancestors. This includes the ability to survive with a very low water intake through the production of very concentrated urine. Their preference to live alone or only in groups if there are abundant resources is still preserved today. You may also notice that your own cat is more active at dusk and dawn, a common time for hunting of their preferred prey (small rodents). Their hunting drive can be seen in how they play and chase toys in our homes. Stay tuned for more information about cats amazing features and their history in upcoming posts!
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