A Michael Broad Blog
The domestic cat did not originate on a continent. It originated in the Middle East which is described as a transcontinental region in Afro-Eurasia. I guess that the area does not have the shape or the geography to be described as a continent. A continent is described as one of the world’s main continuous …
It seems incongruous that for thousands of years humans have shared their homes with fearsome predators. I am referring to the domestic cat. The reason why we do is because of the initial reason why the wild cat was domesticated. They were a utilitarian animal. They were useful as working animals in keeping down …
The Daily Telegraph reports that the first named pet in the UK has been revealed as a cat called “Mite” who lived in a 13th century Hampshire monastery. The author claims that that is the first naming of a British pet i.e. companion animal. The cat lived in Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire in about …
The domestic cats of ancient Egypt were all brown, mackerel tabbies whereas the bronze statues of cats from that era had plain coats. The statues look like modern day Abyssinian cats both in terms of their coat and body confirmation while the ‘real cats’ of that era look like classic, random bred mackerel (striped) …
There is a common misbelief that the Ancient Egyptians first domesticated the cat. They did not because it happened thousands of years earlier.
I’m going to take as my sole source of information for this article the excellent book written by Dr Desmond Morris and published in 1996 called Cat World A Feline Encyclopaedia. The truth is, however, that I’ve written about this subject before at some length but it is nice to read the efforts of …
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 creature from 60 million years ago. The first members of the modern cat family, …
Ultimately, domestic cats are from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East – see map: The domestication of the wildcat was a mutual arrangement (to the benefit of both people (farmers) and cat alike). The domestication of the cat occurred long after the wild dog was domesticated. It is now believed that the initial …
