History of the domestic cat (Part one)

Cats have always been a source of fascination for mankind throughout history. Today cats have become one of the world's most popular pets perfectly suited to the lifestyle of our day. They are beautiful, enigmatic and easy-to-care for pets. But where and when did the domestic cat originate?

It has been about 4000 years since the first cats were domesticated. The Ancient Egyptians were the first to keep and use cats to control vermin and other pests to protect stores of food. In Ancient Egypt, the cat was revered as a hunter and worshiped as gods and goddesses. The ancient Egyptians imposed the death penalty for killing cats and cats were also mummified before being buried.



The earliest written records of attempts to domesticate cats date back to ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptians regarded cats as embodiments of the goddess Bast, also known as Bastet (emphasizing the female -t suffix) or Thet.



She was the daughter of the sun god Ra, although she was sometimes regarded as the daughter of Amun. She was the wife of Ptah and mother of the lion-god Maahes. Her cult was centered on her sanctuary at Bubastis in the Nile Delta, where a necropolis has been found containing mummified cats.



Other ancient civilizations later began to domesticate the cat and took tame felines to Italy where they slowly spread around Europe. Eventually, they arrived in the New World with the Pilgrims. The short haired domestic cat spread across the world from Egypt while long haired cats came later from Turkey and Iran. The domestic cat also spread from India to China and Japan.



"Thousands of years ago cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this." - Anonymous

Sources:

http://www.catsinfo.com/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cats