Indonesia – cat superstition
This is a continuation of cat superstitions around the world. I am pleasantly surprised to discover only one cat superstition in Indonesia although they have many. It is labelled as “Pamali” according to a...
Category: Cat History
All of today’s 600m domestic cats descend from 5 female matriarchal wildcats
In the image below I have tried to present a feel for what the Fertile Crescent was like around 10,000 years ago when ‘at least five different females from the wildcat population’ befriended farmers...
Infographic on “What kind of cat did Cleopatra have?”
The infographic answers the question as best I can. It is not clear when the multitude of different domestic cat coats first emerged through natural selection (evolution) except for the classic (blotched) tabby which...
Cat meat consumption today based on mediaeval superstitions
Although some Chinese living in the south of China appear to have the strongest reputation for eating cat meat, there are other countries particularly in Asia where this habit continues despite objections from some...
Chinese zodiac does NOT leave out the cat but what is the zodiac’s significance?
Quite a lot of people respond to enquiries on why the cat was left out of the Chinese zodiac of 12 animals. After all, they’ve got the dog in the zodiac and the cat...
Medieval domestic cat skinners
A bit of domestic cat history from England and Europe in general plus an image created with the help of an AI computer and some superb online software and some imagination. In Medieval England...
Medieval era domestic cats could not be fed or petted by dining owners
In England in the fifteenth century the social etiquette manual of life insisted that domestic cats should not wander around the dining room and be fed by hand from the dining table or petted....
Medieval domestic cat monetary value (infographic)
In medieval times a labourer earned 2 pence per day. That’s about £300 in today’s money. An adult cat mouser was worth about 4 pence or two day’s wages. In today’s money: around £600....
Infographic on medieval cat names
It is interesting to dip into the medieval world (500-1500 AD) and see how they interacted with their domestic cats. We have an image, or I do, of domestic cat persecution because of the...
Infographic on 5 facts about the Persian cat and Angoras
As Sarah Hartwell aptly describes it, this is a tangled tale. The Angora and Persian histories are intertwined. The Angora Cat Association in Ankara, Turkey are annoyed because the original and genuine Turkish Angora...
Halloween video: fun and entertaining or abusive and objectionable?
Halloween is sadly upon us ??. This holiday season does lead to some cat abuse because of the link between black cats and Halloween. It is an unpleasant association at heart because it harks...
20 facts about the spread of the domestic cat across the world
Here are 20 facts about the spread of the domestic cat around the world during the first era of the domestication of the cat. Introduction: it is generally agreed nowadays that the first ‘domestic...
16 facts about the ancestors of the cat
Here are 16 succinctly summarised facts about the ancestors of today’s cat. It is all about evolution over eons. Today’s domestic cat is a marvel of this evolutionary process which has taken tens of...
First pet cats were tamed wildcats not true domestic cats
It’s a point worth making. You hear a lot about the first domestic cats coming into being about 10,000 years ago. These are the first N. African wildcats who befriended humans and vice versa;...
Pittsburgh ‘Refrigerator Cat’
No, I’m not referring to domestic cats would like to open refrigerator doors and creep inside to either ‘steal’ the food for have a snooze, I’m referring to a special race of domestic cat...
Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.
