cat history

180,000 cat mummies ground into fertilizer in UK

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Ancient Egyptian cat mummy in a tomb

This is a fascinating – and slightly horrifying – story from the 19th century. 🙀 Here’s the story: in the 1800s, there was a booming trade in mummies and mummy parts. Egyptians mummified a lot of animals, especially cats, which were sacred creatures in their culture. Victorians, however, didn’t see these mummies as cultural …

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Picture of a domestic cat outside an Egyptian temple

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Picture of an Egyptian domestic cat outside a temple in which the cat looks like an ancient Egyptian statue

This is a lovely photograph as the cat looks like an ancient Egyptian statue. All the ancient Egyptian statues depict elegant, rather slender, shorthaired cats. They remind me of today’s Abyssinian cat and there may be a connection there but there is no evidence. This cat has a grey coat and steely, golden eyes …

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Good behaviour by anonymous citizens in kitten rescue versus deplorable behaviour by world leaders

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Grey kitten rescued from the engine compartment grill of an SUV in a fast-food restaurant parking lot in rain

I want to relate a beautiful little story about the rescue of a sweet, terrified gray kitten in America. It’s a story of really nice human behaviour by anonymous citizens somewhere in that vast country. There are millions of really nice people on the planet doing good deeds which, for me, contrasts starkly with …

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In 1821, in the UK Parliament, there were howls of laughter about protecting cats

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Illustration showing interior of House of Commons

Times have moved on substantially from 1821 in Britain. I think this was a time when the consequences of an era called The Enlightenment were being felt. Animal welfare in Britain was being discussed in Parliament perhaps for the first time. The first proposal for a law to prevent abuse of animals was a …

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The classic blotched tabby (infographic)

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Silver classic tabby Scottish Fold kitten with a WOW appearance

Scroll down for an infographic on the classic tabby cat coat which is also referred to as the blotched tabby. Of the three types of tabby coat: the mackerel, spotted and classic, as stated in the infographic, the classic is believed to have evolved the last in the Elizabethan era due to a genetic mutation. But domestic cat tabby coats have evolved from the original domesticated cats which were all stripped/spotted tabbies as they were domesticated wildcats. Back in the day there was only one type of tabby.

Agouti tabby (infographic)
Click the link above for an infographic on the agouti gene which is responsible for the tabby coat.
The classic blotched tabby

The discovery that disproved that the Ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate the wild cat

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The discovery that disproved that the Ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate the wild cat

Credits:

  • The picture is deemed to be in the public domain
  • The words at the base of the image are from The Taming of the Cat published on the PMC Pub Med Central website.
  • Citation: Driscoll CA, Clutton-Brock J, Kitchener AC, O’Brien SJ. The Taming of the cat. Genetic and archaeological findings hint that wildcats became housecats earlier–and in a different place–than previously thought. Sci Am. 2009 Jun;300(6):68-75. PMID: 19485091; PMCID: PMC5790555.
  • Link to study.

P.S. I have one comment. It is possible that the cat in the image was tame and not truly domesticated whereas the Ancient Egyptians domesticated the cat.

A cat mouser in A.D. 1000 in Wales was worth about £13 in today’s money

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Howel the Good and 'The Hywel Law Book' or ‘Cyfraith Hywel'.

The Prince of Wales in the year 936 was Howel the Good – Hywel Dda – and he made himself famous in cat history by introducing special laws to protect domestic cats. It seems to me that he is the only leader to have valued kittens and cats in a very precise way which …

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