 A Cat's Short History:What we would call a typical cat can be traced back about 20 million years. Their populations spread out across the Bering land-bridge to North and then South America, with the small cats of the New World and Old World evolving in a parallel way over millions of years. Evidence of the domestication of cats began  about 8,000 years ago in Egypt. Permanent
settlements had stores of gain which attracted rodents, which, in turn, attracted
snakes. Cats provided a good defense against both rodents and  snakes, which were dangerous to human
populations. As a reward cats were fed and let into the home. Other animals in Eypgtian
culture were useful for their skin or hide, for transportation, or as food. But the
cat was free to come and go at will. From
about 1000-350 BCE, cats became regarded as manifestations of the goddess Bastet,
and perhaps others, and were bred in large numbers in the temples. |
 During the early middle ages,
the Norse goddess Freya was the closest thing to a cat goddess among the Europeans.
She had two huge cats pulling her wain, and was constantly surrounded by cats. Her
day of worship was Friday (Friday means Freya's Day).  In
the 15th Century, Pope Innocent VIII decreed that all cat-worshippers in Europe be
burned as witches. Freya became a demon, Friday became the Black Sabbath, and the
cat became a manifestation of the devil.Cat Facts: The first cat show was in 1871 at the Crystal Palace in London. Lions are the only species of cat whose sexes differ in both body size and appearance. A cats body is very flexible...it has 230 bones. A human only has 206. Also, 10% of a cats bones are in its tail. The top two rows of a cat's whiskers can move independently of the lower two rows, allowing maximum perception of the immediate surroundings. |
Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day. Healthy cats can expect to live about 15 years. Famous Cat Lovers: References and for more interesting stuff please visit these web sites:
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