‘Never buy a pig in a poke’ is closely linked to ‘he let the cat out of the bag’. A trickster would substitute a cat for a pig when taking it to market in a bag (a poke). The buyer would ask to see the pig but told he could not because it might escape. And then the cat is released because he’s struggling too much. The secret it out. A failed attempt at fraud.
Continue reading →Christianity is behind the hatred of cats in the Middle Ages supported by the independence of the cat making them outsiders akin to atheists and all this was supported by papal bulls from three popes who were cat haters.
Continue reading →The origin of the word ailurophile, which means ‘cat lover’, is found in the ancient Greek language. ‘Ailurus’ is the ancient Greek word for the domestic cat. It is also spelled ‘ailourus’. The word was coined, it is believed, by … Continue reading →
Aelwaer’s Cat is a fictional cat associated with or ‘owned’ by Saint Aelwaer who was a demonic anti-saint and mother of all vices. She was a ‘Virgin Mary in reverse’. She is portrayed in a Dutch woodcut of 1550. It … Continue reading →
The cat was first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent which is a large crescent shaped area encompassing modern day countries such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Kuwait. The earliest domestic cat is believed to date from around 7,500 BC, found in Cyprus which is an island adjacent to the eastern sector of the Fertile Crescent.
Continue reading →Another similar question is: “When did cats come to Australia?” Because the continent of Australia was cut off from mainland Asia by water there was no migration of wild cats from Asia and hence no domestication of small wild cats … Continue reading →
The question does not specify ‘domestic cats’ therefore I must refer to all cat both wild and domestic. That said, on the internet, people habitually refer to domestic cats as ‘cats’. On my website I have a brilliant page on … Continue reading →
The question in the title asks for the absolute beginnings of the modern domestic cat (species: felis cats). That is the way I read it. It is believed that modern carnivores including the domestic cat evolved from miacids, a weasel-like … Continue reading →
The German, Devon and Cornish Rex cats were discovered in the middle of the 20th century (around 1950). It was thought that these were the earliest examples of the curly coated cats (rex cats). However Sarah Hartwell, who I met … Continue reading →
This is very much in brief. The video below summarises in layperson’s language quite a technical research document published on the Nature Ecology and Evolution website. The ancient history of the domestic cat is quite well-known but if you watch … Continue reading →
