9781422274958

INTRODUCTION

When a cat raises its head directly, it is attempting to convey dominance. The animal’s pricked ears convey

interest in its surroundings.

T he domestic cat, the house cat, the show cat—we see them everywhere, every day. Very few places on Earth can we go where we won’t find the cat. Only a few places can we venture where the cat is not a common and beloved member of the household. The cat has been close to humans for at least 4,500 years. That’s how far back the earliest physical evi- dence—some distinctive cat images on the walls of Egyptian tombs, carved feline statues, and mummi- fied cat bodies—has been dated. Those first “domestic” cats came to live in close proximity to people of their own free will. They were African wildcats (Felis lybica) , which still exist as a wild species today, that chose to move into the alleys and shadows of people’s towns and cities. There they found abundant prey in the rats and mice that were rampant in human’s grain storage bins. For generations before that first connection was made, ancient Egyptian religion had encompassed

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