The illustration comes from The History of Reynard the Fox. In this 15th century woodcut, we see Tybert the Cat castrating a village priest. Incidentally, “Tybert” is spelled in two other ways, namely ‘Tibert’ and ‘Tybalt’. Unusually, there is absolutely … Continue reading →
In a famous Indian fable in the Panchatantra, an ancient collection of animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose from 200 BCE-300CE, the domestic cat is portrayed as sly, underhand and hypocritical. The fable which I describe below is immortalised … Continue reading →
When people move home, they take their cat companion. This has been going on for thousands of years. It is how the domestic cat has spread throughout the world. For example, the Romans did quite a bit of empire building … Continue reading →
This post is specifically about the evolution of the domestic cat since domestication. I do not address the evolution of the wildcat pre-domestication. It’s fairly well-known and currently accepted that the first domestic cats on the planet existed around 10,000 … Continue reading →
It is sad and telling of modern life that the famous place where the first wildcats were domesticated by farmers, the Fertile Crescent, which encompasses Syria and the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, is now a place where there are no … Continue reading →
NEWS AND COMMENT: I have been slightly adventurous in the title to this article. But I think I am within acceptable tolerances! Archaeologists have been excavating at an English Heritage site in Richborough, Kent, UK. It’s the site of an … Continue reading →
Fiona Sunquist in her book Wild Cats of the World tells me that the first animal to be domesticated was the grey wolf now the domestic dog and that Felis sylvestris a.k.a. the wildcat was “almost the last species to … Continue reading →
Yes, there is a common ancestor to the cat and dog. If you believe in evolution as set out by Charles Darwin in his work “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection…” you will believe that there … Continue reading →
Domestic cats are not an invasive species in every country. Domestic cats are native to certain countries and in those countries they are not an invasive species. A species of animal is only “invasive” if they are not native or … Continue reading →
Filipinos are a superstitious race. Superstitious beliefs play an important role in their decision making according to my research. The Philippines is still considered a developing country. Is it fair to say that the citizens of developing countries tend to … Continue reading →
