Domestication of Cat
There is no question that (the domestic cat is a diminutive and complex mixture of all the Felidae. It has the majestic bearing of the lion, stealth of the tiger,agility of the jaguar and leopard, tree-climbing ability of the margay and ocelot, and the hunting prowess common to all the wild cats. And it is both a ferocious and docile animal. In the words of Joseph Mary,nineteenth-century French poet and librettist: “God made the cat in order to give man the pleasurable sense of having caressed the tiger?’The domestic cat appears in many colors, combination of colors,sizes and shapes, although seldom spotted. Generally, the cat is small,well-muscled and geared for stalking and pouncing on its prey. It usually hunts alone, depending entirely upon stealth and agility to ambush its victims. The cat, like the ocelot and margay, can leap into the air and swat down a bird or butterfly. Like the cheetah, it can outrun many small mammals. Its jaws are short and powerful, especially adapted for seizing and holding prey. Yet, despite ferocity in the hunt,most cats make docile pets.
The cat, however, is less sociable than the dog. Perhaps this trait stems from the cat’s habit of hunting alone. Most dogs, of course, hunt in packs and have learned to extend their teamwork to include human beings. Not so in the case of the cat; it is an individualistic animal, yet one that has an affinity with man. To put it succinctly: the cat is less obvious in its relations and friendship with people.
The cat is a relative newcomer to the ranks of man’s domestic animals. What records we have of its early domestication date back only 5,000 years. The dog, on the other hand, is believed to have been domesticated at least 20,000 years ago, possibly longer. Sheep were domesticated by New Stone Age people nearly 11,000 years ago, and cattle have been working for man for nearly 8,000 years.
Our earliest reliable record of the cat’s domestication is derived from ancient Egypt. Various papyri, tomb carvings and other artifacts of the Egyptians show the importance of the cat as a pet and animal of worship. It is likely that other ancient peoples adopted cats as pets and working animals, but no records have been left of this. It is possible that New Stone Age men brought kittens home and trained them as pets and hunters. Today African and Australian aborigines, people not far removed from the New Stone Age, are fond of animals and often tame them. If cats were kept by Stone Age people at all, they were merely tamed and not domesticated.