Origins Of Cats Around The World.

Genetic Origin of Cats Archaeologists have found cat bones, within a Neolithic human settlement site, 9000 years old. A cat skeleton, 8000 years old, has been unearthed on the island of Cyprus, where there have never been any wild cats. Pictures, 7000 years old, of a woman playing with cats, have been found at Angora in Turkey. The ancestors of domestic cats were probably first drawn towards human settlements because of the abundance of rodents living off human left-overs. The humans appreciated the company of their feline visitors, and the cats became dependant on humans for protection. Our domestic cat (whether farm, feral, stray, pure or mogg) is a symbiotic (evolved living with another species) African species of small cat (Felis lybica) who survives due to the proximity of humans (the other species of this symbiosis), in N. Africa since the ice age period during which his species first appeared. Felis lybica is known to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, at least from 2000 years BC. Cats are represented in detail in numerous Egyptian paintings. They had a gingerish brown, striped, marbled or spotted coat, biggish ears and graceful bodies. The Egyptien trade-sailors took cats on their boats to protect their reserves and merchandise. They occasionally gave away kittens during their early travels through Orient and Asia. The first domestic cats in Europe, came with the Egypien sailors who traded at the ports of Greece, Crete and Italie about 1600 years B.C.. At that time, only wealthy citizens could obtain a cat. In 1567 BC, the cat became sacred for the Egyptians, and it was then declared illegal to take a cat out of Egypt. They saw in the cat a reincarnation of the goddess Bastet, sun goddess who reined over fertility, healthfulness, and life's pleasures, of tranquillity, music, dance, solidarity, and love. When someone wanted a favour from this goddess, they brought fresh fish as an offering to her earthly representatives, the cats. At the death of a cat, it's body was mummified. Millions of these mummies have been found in cat tombs. To kill a cat was a serious crime punished by the death sentence. But in the year 30 B.C., Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire. Soldiers going home to Italy could take a cat as a gift for their family. Italian art shows that cats are and have always been appreciated as companion animals in Italy. Domestic cats arrived in China around 1000 BC, and were immediately appreciated as companions under the dynasty Han. Aesop in Greece, wrote several fables featuring cats. He died in 546 B.C.. A fresco featuring a cat was created at Hagia Triado, on the island of Crete about 500 B.C. and numerous terracottas have been found at different locations throughout that country. By 500 BC, cats were common in China. Writings from that period show that cats were highly esteemed and well cared for throughout Asia. Cats initially protected silk cocoons and they were brought happiness as companion animals. The earliest evidence of cats in India dates from 200 BC. These cats later reached Ethiopia and from there were brought to Europe in 1868 and given the name Abyssin in 1896. It is said that the baby Jesus was comforted by a cat that settled beside him to sleep. The purring and warm presence of the cat lulled the child into peaceful sleep. In the small town of Pompeii, buried by volcanic dust in the year 79, one of the unearthed bodies was of a woman cradling a cat in her arms. Cats were taken northwards to other European countries by the Italians, as the Roman empire expanded. They arrived in France and England during the first century A.D.. Pawprints can be seen on Roman tiles at Silchester in England. Howell the Good, a Welsh King in the first century A.D., devised some laws to protect cats in his county. The prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam, preferred to leave his coat rather than disturb a cat sleeping on it. Domestic cats were brought to Japan around the year 1000 by the Korean Emperor Ichijo, to protect manuscripts from mice. The Emperor of China in 1300 gave some to the Emperor of Japan. The off-springs were adopted and well cared for by the Japanese noblesse, to whom cats brought happiness and good luck. They were properly cared for and kept indoors or taken out on harnesses and leads made of silk. In-breeding was inevitable considering the small numbers of cats. The consequent genetic mutations gave rise to the apparition of unusual colour distributions, hair-length, and tail, ear or face formations (due to the concentration of genes for one colour, or form, instead of a balanced mix). Humans encouraged these tendencies by pairing cats who showed the same sort of unusual characteristic. Sadly, selective breeding gave rise to the "cross-eyes" of certain Siamese due to excessive inbreeding. Manx cats first appeared in a small island population of totally inbred cats, in 1600. Manx kittens often die due to spinal deformity and associated organ troubles. The first polydactyle cats were born on a boat which brought emigrants from Cornwall and arrived at Boston in 1605. A recent genetic mutation is the nudity of three kittens in a litter found in 1978 in Ontario. A man took the 3 nude kittens and deliberately reproduced the deformity by interbreeding those three cats. In Europe, during the Middle-Age (476 to 1453) cats fell out of favour when the catholic church accused people of witch-craft if they refused to convert to Christianity. Millions of innocent women were drowned or burnt to death and cats were practically eliminated from Europe. The church was against cats because cats are associated with luck and pleasure, they gave happiness and comfort. People who loved cats did not look to the church for answers because they already had inner peace and happiness. Cats were almost completely eliminated by the end of the 13th century. In the 14th century, the "black death" killed a third of the human population. The last eruption of the "black death" in London was in 1665 following the last mass-destruction of cats in that city. The human survivors took to leaving their doors open to welcome the surviving cats, and started keeping them safe in their houses. The witch-hunt was officially abolished town by town throughout the 1790s. Thereafter, people were free to express their love of cats. Cats became very popular as companions and for keeping rodents away from people and food stores. There have been no outbreaks of the "black death" since 1800 in any part of Europe. They inspired painters (eg Stubb's "Miss Ann's Kitten" 1790), sculptors, writers, musicians, cartoonists and early film-makers. In the 1860s the particularities of cats were registered as different "races" associated with the locality where their genetic particularity first appeared. The Persian came from Persia (now Iran), the Angora came from Ankara in Anatolie (now Turkey) during the 1630s. The Russian blue came from the port of Arkhangelsk. The Siamese arose in Siam (now Thailand) about 200 B.C. and came to Europe during the 1880s. The Bobtail developed in Japan shortly after the year 1000, because it was at that time the first cats arrived on the island and inbred. Blue cats brought from the Syrian mountains, by crusaders during the middle-ages, were named "Chartreux" during the 15th century because of their similarity to the soft wool of that name, imported from Spain. That name was officially registered as a breed, in 1928. Black cats are still associated with witches at Halloween, but the cat's presence is reassuring because their "magic" makes people happy ! All domestic cats, (Felis lybica domestica) living indoors or outside, descend from these small symbiotic cats of Africa (they too are Felis lybica domestica). Stray or "feral" cats are homeless domestic cats. They instinctively install themselves near human habitations in search of warmth and food. Each cat would have to catch 15 mice per day in order to survive without human help. The species would never have existed if humans had not existed in northern Africa. The European wild cat (Felis sylvestre) lives only in the remaining fragments of ancestral forest, and weighs four to six times as much as the domestic cat (Felis lybica). Jardins Félins. Sent to us by Carl Johnston.