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Adult wildcats would bring their kitten litters on their hunting forays into the grain storage areas, and the instinctive barriers to human contact were further broken down in subsequent generations of the animals. Soon enough, the cats were living much of their lives within the con-fines of the granaries and also giving birth to their kittens in these new shelters. Impressed with their rodent-destroying capabilities as well as their physical attributes, the Egyptians came to view cats as something sacred. And as the numbers of cats in the human cities grew, people were willing to take them into their homes.

Similar scenarios occurred in other parts of the world, although at significantly later times—notably with the European wildcat (F. silvestris), the desert cat of Asia (F. ornata), and the longhair (F. manul) of central Asia. No written records reveal how well the special attribute of kitten cuteness played in the development of the human-cat relationship, but there can be no doubt that it was a significant factor in helping humans to decide that this animal—above so many others— should come to share their living space and their lives.

Exploration gradually becomes a bigger and bigger part of the kitten’s life as it reaches out beyond the nest and the litter to begin claiming its own piece of the world.

The completely content kitten, and adult cat for that matter, often will be heard purring in the pleasure it takes in such a comfortable state.

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