History of Domestic Cats: Origins

History of the Domestic Cat 

Anicient History

First cats: Egypt

History of the domestic cat began around 4000 years ago in the ancient Egyptian times. The first domestic cats were believed to have evolved from African wild cats and so were very skilled at hunting. The farmers of the time noticed how the wild cats would hunt and kill the vermin that plagued their crops and so began to leave scraps of food out for them so that they would remain around their farm and continue to protect their crops. This is how the first domestic cats began to appear. 

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  The rats and mice would spread disease and eats crops so cats were greatly valued for their skills at killing. As more and more of the vermin were exterminated the amount of food greatly increased along with disease and death rate reducing. Cats greatly improved the living standards if the time and became sacred creatures that represented life. They were worshipped as gods by the everyone, even the pharaoh. They were revered as master hunters and the penalty for killing a cat was execution. They were associated with Egyptian goddesses such as Bast, Isis and Pasht. Pharohs were buried with statues of cats to serve as safe companionship to aid the journey to the afterlife.

Cats move to europe

http://cats-pictures.org/pictures/view_post/457?lang=en

Cats were traded and introduced to europe bringing with them their 'good luck'. They improved the standrads of living everywhere as they had in Egypt. They became highly valued assets to society. They were worth alot of money and the rich began to keep them as pets

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Cats introduced to Asia

A domesticated cat was given to the emperor of China in 500BC and soon cats became the most popular pets of the rich in the Song Dynasty. They were bred with the Asian wild cats to create some of the breeds we know today like Siamese and Burmese. Cats represented good luck and even now small statues known as Maneki-neko represent good luck and are displayed in shop fronts to try and bring in money.