Infographic explains why cats are described as having nine lives

We know that cats are great survivors. It seems that they have the ability to avoid death when other animals might succumb under similar life threatening circumstances because of their superb athleticism and acute senses. Some put it down to luck. But why describe this skill as having nine lives? Why not three lives or five lives? Why nine?

Well, here is the answer in an infographic that I prepared today based on the words of a great animal behaviourist and author. The answer is simple in one sense and awfully complicated in another because I am yet to find a good explanation for the what the 'trinity of trinities' is.

But here is one from Google Gemini. It does not explain how 9 lives signifies luck but I think we infer that the number 9 is special for the reasons described below and because it is special it can be attached to luck.

The term "trinity of trinities" has two main interpretations:

• Christian Theology: This refers to the concept of the Christian Trinity itself, where one God exists in three persons: Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit. Proponents of this view reason that the number three and the concept of a trinity appear throughout creation, reflecting the nature of God (https://www.icr.org/).
• General Numerology: More broadly, "trinity of trinities" simply refers to the number nine (3 x 3). The number nine holds significance in various cultures and belief systems due to its mathematical properties and its frequent appearance in natural phenomena (https://www.bookofthrees.com/contact/).

Infographic

Bing Copilot says this about the trinity of trinities:

The Trinity of Trinities is a concept that represents the ultimate expression of divine unity and complexity. It’s challenging for relative beings to fully grasp, but here’s a simplified explanation:

1. The Doctrine of the Trinity: In Christianity, the Trinity refers to one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. These three are one in essence but distinct in person.

2. The Shield of Trinity: This iconic diagram visually represents the correlation between the three Persons of the Trinity. It’s often depicted as an equilateral triangle with each corner labeled as “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit.” The lines connecting them signify their eternal relationship.

3. The Trinity of Trinities: Beyond the basic Trinity, this concept suggests a deeper understanding of divine relationships. It encompasses the interplay of the three Persons within the Godhead, revealing their harmonious unity and mutual love. While challenging to comprehend fully, it invites us to explore the profound nature of God.

In summary, the Trinity of Trinities invites us to contemplate the intricate unity and relational dynamics within the divine nature. 🙏✨

Are you any the wiser? I am not. (✿◡‿◡)

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Cat and dog ownership is about pleasing people not the cats and dogs

Of course, in cat and dog ownership the caregivers often do their best to keep their pets happy. And that sentence appears to contradict the title. What I'm saying, though, is that the ultimate goal of a cat or dog owner is most often to please themselves; to find support from their companion animal. That's often the primary objective when people adopt or purchase/adopt a pet.

Human centrism as depicted by an AI computer DALL-E 3.

History

This primary goal shows itself in how pet ownership has developed over hundreds of years. If you turn the clock back in let's say Britain and look at cat ownership then, cats were allowed much more freedom to behave naturally. There were more community cats in Britain hundreds of years ago.

To allow cats to behave naturally is to please them. Of course hundred years ago there were no veterinary services and therefore cats had a shorter lifespan. They would have been ill more often which makes cats unhappy. 

They would been fed human scraps rather than specially formulated cat food. All these were negatives to cat contentment but at the heart of cat caregiving in the early part of the 19th century cats were allowed behave more naturally compared to today. That's the point I'm making ultimately.

Jumping forward to today, then, although cats and dogs are healthier in some regards today they are, arguably less content. I'll highlight some specific points to support that statement.

And I'm going to refer to an environmental historian who provided advice for an article on The Guardian newspaper online for some pointers on this. Their name is Troy Vettese. Troy said:

“If people really cared about animals, we would only engage in rescues and helping animal sanctuaries’ wildlife rehabilitation – things that we find fulfilling, but that also help the animal. [Instead] we only like relationships where they are easy, where the pets are well maintained, where we can hire a dog walker, where it impinges as little as possible on our life and we are extracting as much emotional support as we want from them."

He regards the relationship as very selfish. It is indeed human-centric. The cat-to-human relationship and the dog-to-human relationship very much centres around what the human wants and desires and gets. Of course, there is a wide spectrum of types of relationship with some being far better than others but that is the underpinning process.

Pandemic

The human-centric nature of pet ownership became very apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cats and dogs were adopted because people were in lockdown. They wanted company. They adopted animals for themselves. They thought less of the long-term future and how they would cope with cat and dog caregiving which resulted in surrenders to rescues and sales on Facebook when the pandemic ended. Another signal of the human-centric nature of pet ownership nowadays.

This led to many reports of shelters being overrun with abandoned pets. The RSPCA were one example who complained about this.

Expansion

In America, pet ownership has expanded a lot as is the case in the UK and I suspect in other developed countries. A report on the pet industry in the US states that 70% of US households have a pet. A massive upscaling of pet ownership.

Indoors

But in parallel with that there has been a definite trend towards keeping cats indoors full-time which is good and bad. I have said in the past that people keep their cats indoors full-time primarily for their benefit; for their emotional well-being to prevent them being anxious about their cat when they go outside. Most people don't keep their cats inside to protect wildlife. They keep them inside to feel better themselves. But they don't enrich the indoor environment which leads to an unnatural environment for the cat and a less contented life.

And it is said that dogs have "less and less freedom to move around the world and be dogs". Those are the thoughts of Jessica Pierce, a bioethicist.

Breeding

And then we can turn to cat and dog breeding. The cat fancy didn't exist before the late 1800s and the same applies to dogs broadly speaking although dog domestication started 20k years ago compared to cats at 10k years ago. 

But since then, selective breeding has created some dogs and cats with extraordinary appearances which are unnatural and frankly unhealthy. Purebred cats and dogs inherit more illnesses than random bred cats and dogs. That's a result of selective breeding. And selective breeding is about pleasing owners. It's a human-centric process. And when you breed animals you kill more shelter animals. Another process which points to pleasing people rather than doing the right thing for companion animals.

Objects

Jessica Pierce claims that people nowadays are more likely to treat dogs and cats as objects than they were in the past. This is evident in the selective breeding argument above. Selective breeding is a moulding of a cat or dog so they have an interesting appearance while almost ignoring the health consequences. You couldn't get more human-centric.

Family members

And we know that cats and dogs nowadays are very often treated as family members. Like little people. Like kids. Like toddlers and people buy them clothes sometimes and dress them up. They do this to please themselves but not their cat or dog. And sometimes perhaps rarely dog owners have an artist paint a portrait of their companion animal and hang it over the mantelpiece. Just like a family member.

Starter kids

The business side of the pet ownership industry has burgeoned. And people are having pets rather than children. They sometimes adopt a cat or dog as a starter child. This has upset the current Pope who wants Italians to have children rather than adopt a pet.

The process is one of converting an animal to a human. If you treat a cat or dog as a human you are not really respecting the animal and doing right by the animal. There should be a focus on what an animal needs to be content which means creating a world fit for the animal in which they can express their natural desires.

Overindulge

And people sometimes overindulge their animals which has resulted in what veterinarians describe as an 'obesity epidemic'. Once again this is about people wishing to be nice to their pet resulting in overfeeding and a lack of exercise for their companion animal. Human failings based around but humans want to do and not what is right for their animal.

Emotional support

Pierce claims that often people tend to adopt a dog as a support animal, and emotional aid. She says this is not good for dog health and claims that veterinary literature reports that the level of dog anxiety is "off the charts".

People are asking dogs and cats to fulfil a human need and looking for unconditional love. This appears to be humans controlling their pet to the point where they are only allowed to give unconditional love. If they were allowed more freedoms with they give it?

Focusing on cat and dog needs

Another thought is that even when cat and dog owners are very thoughtful and conscientious they intend to underestimate the needs and desires of their companions. It's difficult to say it but the domestic cat is a top predator. They need to prey on animals to be content. It is their raison d'être. It is the centre of their lives. Bang them up in they home full-time and they can't do it and they become unhappy. They lack mental stimulation and opportunities to do what they want. They sleep all the time. They eat for pleasure. They become fat. Sometimes they suffer from separation anxiety when their owner leaves them alone all day.

Boredom

Vettese believes that "the boredom of animals is intense." He is referring to parrots stuck in cages bored out of their minds and stressed. But the same can apply to many indoor cats.

The captivity of cats is an issue. The full-time indoor MO makes them zoo animals in effect. And we know how bad zoos are the wild animals and the domestic cat, at heart is a wild animal.

Adopt from rescues

One thing we can do better is to adopt animals from rescue centres only. In line with this, many American jurisdictions are preventing pet shops from selling animals such as cats and dogs and forcing people to adopt them from shelters or the pet shop can be an extension of a shelter. The concept of breeding cats and dogs and then buying them is very human-centric and treating them as objects such as a new car. Dog and cat breeds are about appearance because humans are fascinated with appearance.

Ownership and caregiving

There is a distinction between owning and caring for a companion animal. The concept of ownership is wrong in terms of fostering good cat and dog caregiving. Ownership fosters or reinforces a problematic attitude towards animals and renders them as a property whereas caregiving fosters treating animals as animals. Respecting them more.

Failure

I have argued that cat domestication is a failure when considered overall. A thought. Too many feral cats. Each feral cat is a sign of failure.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Ship's rats preserved in tar since 1373. Analysis of Black Death bacterium.

Scientists hope to be able to found out which variant of the Black Death bacterium caused one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. They have discovered two rats preserved in tar in a shipwreck recently uncovered in Estonia.

The date of 1373 is ideal because that is in the middle of the era of the Black Death in Europe. The scientists want to find out the variant of the bacterium which killed so many people. You may remember that at the time people thought that cats spread the disease but it was humans (see below) so by killing the cats they made things worse. However, it is a myth that there was a mass culling of cats.

The discovery of this ship containing two preserved rats is revealed in the second episode of the Channel 4 series Bettany Hughes' Treasures of the World. It will be aired on April 13.

Image created by the masterful DALL-E. 

Bettany Hughes said that she heard about the unbelievable discovery of the ship and she told The Times (the source of the story for me): "It's the biggest archaeological maritime find on land ever. Then, a few months before we were due to be filming in Estonia, we heard about this incredible discovery of the rats. A barrel of tar had fallen over and mummified them. So they have been preserved in tar. You don't get organic material like that preserved from the fourteenth century. It's almost unheard of."

She added that, "It's the first time we've got a potential candidate for the Black Death carrier. It's bang on the absolute peak of the Black Death surge in Europe, so it would be extraordinary if the rat turns out not to have it."

They've already analysed their hair and stomach contents. The stomach contents would also tell us about the diet of the sailors on the ship at the time.

They hope that the rats test positive for the bubonic plague and if so they will be able to discover the variant that caused the pandemic.

It's believed that the ship was part of a powerful trading network called Hanseatic League. It was discovered in 2022 during construction work in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

The area was once underwater. The ship had sunk close to the mouth of the River Harjapea.

The ship has overlapping planking, sealed with animal hair and tar. "We have found wool material used for packing, we have also found some tools and fragments of mediaeval leather shoes." - Bettany

The Bacterium

The Black Death, a devastating pandemic that swept through Europe during the 14th century, claimed an estimated 25 million lives between 1347 and 1351. Historically, rats have been blamed for spreading this deadly disease. However, recent research challenges this assumption.

Yersinia pestis, a bacterium, is the culprit behind the Black Death. In 1894, bacteriologists Kitasato Shibasaburo from Japan and Alexandre Yersin from France independently identified this pathogen. They discovered that it was carried by fleas, which acted as parasites on both rats and other small rodents ¹. These infected fleas, in turn, sought out and bit humans, transmitting the disease.

Contrary to popular belief, rats weren’t the primary carriers of the plague. Instead, it was humans who facilitated its spread. Simulations conducted by researchers revealed that the model focusing on fleas and ticks on humans best explained the disease’s transmission in European cities. The plague moved too swiftly for rats to be the sole culprits. If rats were the main cause, we would expect more archaeological evidence of dead rats, but historical and archaeological records provide little support for this claim ².

So, while rats play a role in the Black Death narrative, it was ultimately human interactions that allowed the bacterium to wreak havoc across the continent. The fleas, hitchhiking on humans, acted as the bridge between rodents and people, leading to one of the most devastating pandemics in history.

Today a simple course of antibiotics cures the Black Death. This critically important drug was unavailable at the time.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

The reason why domestic cats are obligate carnivores (hyper-carnivores)

This article is going to be short and it is an extension of another article I wrote a few moments ago. It's a nice theory (a suggestion but a good one) proposed by James Sanderson PhD in his book Small Wild Cats (co-author Patrick Watson). In that earlier article I explained why the entire family of cats cannot taste sweetness. 

Cats evolved from a fierce sabre-toothed predator that prowled North America 42 million years ago, according to new research. San Diego Natural History Museum SWNS. Image assessed as being in the public domain. Wrong? Tell me please.

It is due to a genetic mutation which occurred very early on in the evolution of the cat which is why every lineage of which there are eight are affected by this 'defect'. 

In 2005, scientists discovered that all cats lack one of a pair of proteins required to sense sweetness. The missing protein was the result of a deletion, the loss of part of a chromosome or sequence of DNA in a gene. - Sanderson and Watson

This defect was caused after all by a genetic defect or mutation which resulted in the omission of some DNA which in turn resulted in the failure of the cat to have receptors in their tongue to detect sweetness although they retained the skill to detect bitterness which helps to protect them because often toxins are bitter.

Unlike humans and some other animals, cats lack the taste receptors known as "T1R2" and "T1R3," which are responsible for detecting sweetness. - AI computer Poe.

So the reason why domestic cats and all cats of all species are hyper-carnivores is because they can't taste sweetness. It is only plants that can taste sweet because of photosynthesis creating sugars such as sucrose. Cats can't enjoy the sweetness of plants and therefore they don't eat plants whereas cats enjoy the taste of flesh and became obligate carnivores.

That's the argument. It's a very interesting argument and one which states that the entire evolution of the cat species into hyper-carnivores can be put down to a single genetic mutation of chromosomes and genes in the very early evolution of the true cat which has taken about 30 million years or longer. The scientists are still working that out!

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

From 1 to 250 million domestic cats in 10,000 years

At the moment the news media is discussing the domestication of the cat. A good moment to present the story in a different light as indicated in the title. 

At one time - we are unsure exactly when but perhaps around 10,000 years ago - there was one domestic cat. The first domestic cat in the world. Well, they weren't exactly domesticated, more tamed North African wildcat but for sake of keeping things simple we'll call that first, precious cat 'domesticated'.

Image: MikeB

Of course, the person with whom the cat resided had no idea that they were making history! But they were. It was entirely novel at the time. But also, at that time the dog had been domesticated for about 10,000 years already!

Anyway, 10,000 years later humankind has around 250 million domestic cats living on the planet it is believed. The number is a guess so please don't quote the figure as a fact as it is not.

The trouble with the internet is that what starts out as an estimate or even a guess becomes fact after it has been recycled hundreds of times online through various website but mainly news media websites.

To the approximate quarter of a billion domestic cats, we can add a similar number of feral and stray cats making a grand total of around half a billion (500,000,000).

For me, the equal number of feral cats strongly indicates that cat domestication has been an unmitigated failure despite the fact that their presence in millions of homes has brightened up the lives of their human caregivers. But there should be no feral cats.

Each feral cat is a failure in cat domestication. A failure in cat ownership and caregiving. In the early days of cat domestication by the Ancient Romans I suspect that there were very few feral cats.

Domestic cats were perhaps more important and relatively rare. As they become ever more commonplace their value decreased leading to poor cat caregiving, carelessness leading to domestic cats becoming unwanted strays and ferals.

This carelessness in cat ownership would have led and still does to allowing them to procreate. Back in the day there was no such thing as spaying and neutering or veterinarians.

Now we have vets and still careless people allow their cats to procreate to swell the number of feral cats further.

The worst case of humankind's relationship with the cat is in Australia where there is legalised cat cruelty on a large scale as the authorities poison, shoot and kill in any way possible the feral cats on that continent with no thought to dealing with the 'problem' humanely.

Australia is the ultimate example of failure in cat domestication as it is full of cruelty.

Boar-cat

'Boar-cat' was an early name for a male cat. An alternative name was 'ram-cat'. Both were replaced by 'tom-cat' in the 18th century, with the spelling now normally being 'tomcat'. You can go back further to medieval times (500-1500 AD) when tomcats were called 'Gyb' which was a shortened name for Gilbert which is why it is capitalized in contrast to tomcat which is not.

The 'painting below' is by an AI computer on instructions to paint a 'medieval scene with cat'. I think the result is pretty damned good:

Cat in a medieval scene as painted by DALLE E an AI computer.

Gyb was a generic name but it could also be a given name to an individual cat. And there were variations on the name such as 'Gibbe' and 'Gybbe'.

A Scottish poem from the late fifteenth century by Robert Henryson goes:

"When two mice are on a table-top,
Barely have they drunk once or twice

When in comes Gib Hunter, our cat."

Cat owner's in medieval England advised to keep cats out of the bedroom

The French adage "plus ça change" comes to my mind immediately.  It is a phrase which means that things don't change because basic human nature does not change even over thousands of years.

Medieval bedroom with woman and her cat. Photo-edited pic by MikeB.

And so back in medieval times (500-1500 AD) a well-known book which can still be found on Google, "Boke of Nature", advises in the strongest terms to keep domestic cats out of the bedroom:

"Dryve out dogge and catte, or els geve them a clout"

I guess you can understand it but it must mean:

"Drive dogs and cats out of the bedroom and if they enter hit them!"

Nice. A bit unfriendly to say the least. 

There is a strange medieval story of a knight and a lady he loves. She has a cat companion. She rejected the knight's advances. He goes to her bedroom at night in disguise. Her cat scratches him. She softens as a result and becomes his mistress but he refuses to marry her because he is scared of her cat! 

Some knight of the realm 😒. Lacking a bit of courage. Although the story is very modern in that the woman has the cat and the man appears not to be very keen on them.

The debate about domestic cats in bedrooms continues. I expect it has been a firm discussion topic since the domestic cat was imported into Britain by the Romans!

The best solution is compromise. Allow cats into the bedroom as it is so important to them. It is a major part of their home range. Don't deny them access. 

Make a nice, warm bedding area for your cat in the bedroom full of delicious cat owner smells and hope that she uses it. I understand the difficulties as cats disturb sleep but you get used to it. It is one of those human behaviour adaptations that cat caregivers have to transition to.

Source: Medieval Cats by Kathleen Walker-Meike.

Fertile Crescent confirmed as place of origin of domestic cat MU study finds

This is a new study that may interest some people. It basically confirms earlier studies and/or hardens up the theory that wildcat domestication first occurred in the Fertile Crescent, up to 12,000 years ago,  and they were transported to other parts of the world by their owners. Domestic cats might still be described as 'semi-domesticated' because of their ability to switch to a wildcat-like behaviour when allowed to roam outside the home except for the fact that they are socialised to humans.

Similarity in appearance is still evident after 10,000 years. Image: MikeB

Below is a summary of the study from a report from the University of Missouri. The scientist, Leslie A. Lyons, a feline geneticist and Gilbreath-McLorn endowed professor of comparative medicine in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, was the study leader and author.

Domestic cats are thought to have originated from the wildcat species, Felis silvestris, which still exists today. The domestication of cats is believed to have begun when humans settled in the Fertile Crescent, the region surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Cats were attracted to the settlements because of the presence of rodents, which were a source of food for the cats.

Fertile Crescent location where wildcat domestication first occurred. Image: MikeB based on one in the public domain as assessed.

The new study at the University of Missouri used DNA analysis to examine the genetic makeup of cats from the Fertile Crescent area and other parts of the world. The researchers found that the genetic makeup of the cats in the Fertile Crescent was similar to that of wildcats, suggesting that the domestication of cats likely began in this region. The researchers also found that as humans migrated to other parts of the world, they likely took their cats with them, resulting in the spread of domesticated cats to other parts of the world.

Another map of the Fertile Crescent. Image in public domain.

Domestic cats, like many other domesticated animals, have evolved to live and thrive in close association with humans. However, unlike other domesticated animals such as dogs, the domestication of cats has not resulted in significant changes to their natural behaviors. Cats are known to be skilled hunters and are able to take care of themselves in the wild, making them "semi-domesticated" animals.

The study at the University of Missouri used genetic analysis to provide evidence for the theory that cats were first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East and were later transported by humans to other parts of the world. The researchers found that the genetic makeup of cats in the Fertile Crescent was similar to that of wildcats, suggesting that the domestication of cats likely began in this region. As humans migrated to other parts of the world, they likely brought their cats with them, resulting in the spread of domesticated cats to other parts of the world.

Kilkenny cat

 

This is I believe a representation of the Kilkenny hurling team, who are called the Kilkenny cats in recognition of the fighting spirit of the original and real cats (see story below). Photo copyright the man with the golden cam. 

The orange and black striped shirt is meant to represent a ginger tom cat. The Times archive is a fascinating source of information. The author of an article in the 31st, 1864 edition purports to know the origin of the Kilkenny cat. 

The term 'Kilkenny cat' refers to a person who fights with tenacity. Several origins of this term have evolved. The Times journalist of 1864 thought he had the right answer as to the origin and he probably did. This is it. A rebellion occurred in Ireland (didn't they always) in 1798 or 1803. 

As a result, Kilkenny was garrisoned (troops were assigned to a military post) to, I expect, keep the peace. The soldiers in the garrison where Hessian (soldiers from the then principality of Hesse Kassel, now in Germany - they were then German soldiers). 

They had the appalling and utterly cruel custom or habit (to pass the time of day, I expect) of tying two cats together by their tails and then hanging the cats over a clothes line so that the cats were forced to face each other. Under these cruel and uncomfortable circumstances, they fought each other until one succumbed. 

William Hogarth drawing of Kilkenny cats fighting. 

This custom became known to the officers who wanted to stop it. On an inspection of the barracks to catch this act happening, a soldier cut down the cats with a sword, cutting through each cats tail. The cats fled leaving their tails hanging on the line. 

The explanation given to the officer was that two cats had fought and consumed each other. As they must have fought with incredible conviction to have eaten each other a saying evolved, "to fight like a Kilkenny cat", to mean fighting with conviction and tenacity. 

Which is why the Kilkenny hurling and Gaelic football teams like to call themselves the cats.

Kilkenny cat to cat show 1871

Early "domestic cats" were actually tamed wildcats

It is said, with confidence nowadays, that the first domestic cats on the planet existed about 9500 years ago. It all started in an area that we know now as Syria and spread out from there. The skeleton of a wildcat and a man were unearthed on the island of Cyprus. The remains were dated at 9500 years ago.

It is entirely plausible that cats were domesticated before that date perhaps as long ago was 14,000 years in the past. The wild cat on Cyprus had been imported onto that island from Syria by its owner.

This man had a pet cat. But his pet cat was a tame North African wildcat. It's a bit like today when people sometimes like to live with a tame serval. These are not truly domesticated cats. They are simply conditioned to behave in a fairly calm way around people. They are conditioned to live with people in the human environment. But they don't cope very well and they are quite challenging.

This very early 'domestic cat' was in fact a tamed wildcat from north Africa. Picture in the public domain.

I say that because this man living on Cyprus 9500 years ago would have had the same sort of issues with his pet cat. Although, admittedly, the North African wildcat is naturally predisposed towards a pliable character which gets along well with people. In fact, in Africa today there are African wildcats approaching human settlements and becoming somewhat like domestic cats.

But it is quite important to state that the first so-called 'domestic cats' were actually tamed wildcats. The difference is that with a tamed cat you have trained an individual cat to live with a person or persons but they are still in essence a wild cat and therefore their character is going to be somewhat difficult to accept. There might be the occasional aggression from the cat because they are inherently twitchy especially when living in this false environment of the human world.

RELATED: Why did ancient Egyptians shave off their eyebrows to mourn their dead cats?

In contrast, the true domestic cat has developed over thousands of years. They have a lineage. They've either selectively bred themselves or humans have selectively bred them to have a character which is inherently domesticated or predisposed to domestication. In short, domestication is an alteration to the genetic make-up of an animal as opposed to an alteration of their behaviour. The former changes go far deeper than the latter.

An important further note to make is that domestic cats still require socialisation as kittens. If not they are fearful of humans.

It is somewhat ironic that on Cyprus today there are more cats than people. These are going to be community cats largely but there will be domestic and feral cats as well. This problem has occurred because of a lax approach to spaying and neutering of cats so they have been allowed to breed when living in the urban environment. And of course the government has not grasped the problem sufficiently well to resolve it.

RELATED: Why are there so many cats on Cyprus?

It is probably fair to state that Cyprus is a snapshot of what is wrong with the relationship between humans and cats. In the early days cat domestication it worked to a large extent. The first true domestic cats were in ancient Egypt about 4,000 years ago. They were all mackerel/spotted tabbies and slightly larger than today's domestic cat. Although the ancient Egyptians abused domestic cats by breeding them for sacrifice to the gods. That is a clear abuse by modern standards although it is tricky to judge a race of people by modern standards.

But the fact is that the concept of cat domestication is a good one but humans have screwed up and arguably it is been a failure of a process. This is because there are hundreds of millions of feral cats on the planet. They are homeless, they are often miserable, distressed and ill. Their lifespan is shortened. They should be living with people. This must be judged as a failure of humankind in the domestication of the cat.

1901 Persian Cat vs 2009 Persian Cat

A pictorial comparison between a Persian cat of 1901 in Britain and a Persian show cat of about 2009 in the United States. The difference shows us how far the development of the Persian cat has come over more than 100 years. Is it a good, positive development?

I'd like to refer you to two pages on PoC that discuss the Persian cat and its development:

1. Persian cats
2. Persian cat breeding

And I'd also like to refer to DOMESTIC AND FANCY CATS - A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THEIR VARIETIES, BREEDING, MANAGEMENT AND DISEASE (1901) by John Jennings who was an experienced show cat judge of the time.

Mr Jennings says this of the Persian show cat of his era:

"The ears should be somewhat small. The head should be small for the size of the car. The body should be long and rounding. The Persian should scale 8lb to 10lb."

The CFA standard for the Persian at 2012 says:

"HEAD: round and massive, with great breadth of skull...EARS: small. When viewed in profile, the prominence of the eyes is apparent and the forehead, nose, and chin appear to be in vertical alignment...BODY: of cobby type, low on the legs, broad and deep through the chest, equally massive across the shoulders and rump."

I don't have to add a comment save to say that the long, elegant 1901 Persian cat has become a somewhat dumpy, flat-faced rounded cat of more extreme proportions.

I don't know about anybody else, but it has always mystified me why the cat breeders who administer the CFA decided that the Persian cat should have such a flat face. For some reason they think that the appearance of this extreme Persian cat is more aesthetically pleasing than the original version. I can't see the logic in the decision making. 

The earlier versions are aesthetically more pleasing than the later ones. It seems to me that the cat associations have gone backwards. Not only are the early Persians better looking they are healthier because the extreme breeding alters the anatomy, as you know, of the face which can cause breathing problems and tear duct overflow. 

What is going on? What happened? How did the CFA arrive at this situation? And can they go back? They certainly don't want to go back when they should be more open to that possibility. In fact, I would highly recommend that they do, for the reasons stated above.

Associated: Traditional Persian Cat.

The First Siamese Cats in the Western World

Mrs Vyvyan of Dover, England, UK was the person who first brought the Siamese cat to the Western world from the Orient. The year: 1886. I am sure that snippet of information will be disputed by many! However, it comes from Mrs Vyvyan herself who sent the information to Harrison Weir, the founder of the cat fancy. This is referred to in Harrison Weir's book: Our Cats and all about them at pages 77-79.

If she is not the first, she is one of the first and it is, therefore, interesting to hear what Mrs Vyvyan has to say about the Siamese cat - the original version before cat breeders in the West got hold of the breed and mangled it 😉.

We don't have a photo of her Siamese cats (if you can help, please comment) but below is an early Siamese showing a normal body conformation and head shape.

An early Siamese cat showing a normal body conformation and head shape. Photo: Wikipedia Commons and in the public domain.

Her experiences with this famous breed relate to Siamese cats that came direct from Siam (now Thailand). She nursed and cared for the original Siamese cats believed to have come from the King's Palace and sent to her from Bangkok. At the time she was in China.

These are some of the comments she makes about the first Siamese cats in the western world. I think her comments will interest aficionados of the Siamese cat breed.

"They are very affectionate and personally attached to their human friends, not liking to be left alone, and following us from room to room more after the manner of dogs than cats." 

We know that the Siamese cat is famous for their loyalty, close relationships with people and being talkative - see character. She confirms this.

She says that the male Siamese is very strong and that they fight with strange dogs. The male Siamese can "conquer all other tom-cats in their neighbourhood". 

Apparently, while Mrs Vyvyan was living in China one of her cats had had a fight with a wild cat and lost. He was killed but managed to walk home before dying.

Being the time before the existence of pet food manufacturers Mrs Vyvyan fed her cats fresh fish with boiled rice, bread, warm milk, chicken and game.

She supported the idea that they were better off going out and catching their own food, "feather and fur".

Mrs Vyvyan said:

"We find these cats require a great deal of care, unless they live in the country, and become hardy through being constantly out of doors". 

A thought which is out-of-step with today's trend towards indoor cats. She said that kittens are more likely to survive if born in late spring so they could benefit from the warmer weather.

The predominant illness in her kittens appears to have been worms. They were so bad the kittens tried to vomited them up. She gave them raw chicken with heads and with feathers on as a relief from the discomfort.

She describes the gradual development of the pointing. The first Siamese cats were seal pointed. This is the classic pointing. Breeders have developed a lot of different colours for the pointing including lynx (tabby) pointing. Mr Vyvyan believed that the "true breed, by consensus of opinion" was the seal point which she describes as, "of the dun, fawn, or ash ground, with black points." She mentions other colours which implies that even then there were other colours. I think chocolate pointing has been referred to as an original color. Although Mrs Vyvyan didn't refer to this.

"When first born the colour is nearly pure white, the only trace of 'points' being a fine line of dark gray at the edge of the ears; gradual alteration takes place, the body becoming creamy, the ears, face, tail, and feet darkening, until, about a year old, they attain perfection, when the points should be the deepest brown, nearly black, and the body ash or fawn colour, the eyes opal or blue, looking red in the dark. After maturity they are apt to darken considerably, though not all specimens."

Mrs Vyvyan says that the Siamese is a delicate cat (she is referring to a delicacy of health). She recommends that only a "real cat lover" should get involved in caring for a Siamese cat. They still are delicate, ironically, due to selective breeding. They have the most inherited genetic illnesses of all the cat breeds.

She refers to the intelligence of the Siamese cat. This is a known quality and in fact the Siamese related cats such as the Oriental Shorthair are also rated in the top bracket for cat breed intelligence, if you believe such things.

Harrison Weir's drawing of a Siamese cat's head pointing 1889.

To finish off this page I'll show you what Harrison Weir considers to be the "properly marked Siamese cat". The picture above is also interesting for the shape of the head. This is a perfect example of a traditional Siamese cat. That is the way the Siamese cat looked in Siam before 1886! The modern Siamese or even the Thai cat are not representative of the original Siamese cat.

Associated page: Siamese cat history.

Note - copyright. I have decided that, despite what some have said, the copyright in Harrison Weir's book has expired due the passage of time and it is now in the public domain. If I am wrong, please tell me and I will take prompt action. 

Respect Your Cat Day 2022 originates in King Richard II's edict of 1384?

This is rather strange but some authors online are connecting this year's Respect Your Cat Day with Richard II and an edict that he made in 1384 in which he condemned eating cats. It was an early form of respecting the cat. You can see from the short clip from a book listed by Google that the peasants of the time harboured a lot of resentment towards King Richard and they took it out on cats. They killed and ate them by the thousands according to this extract. At the time there were food shortages. They called the King "the royal cat".

I do not know if this is true. However, it is a fact of history that in 1381 there was the Peasants' Revolt which was the first crisis of Richard's reign. He rode out to meet the rebels who were led by Wat Tyler. Tyler was killed and the revolt was crushed. Afterwards Richard began to take control of the government himself, building a group of unpopular favourites.

Richard II of England. Image: Wikipedia.

The extract that I mention begs the question whether peasants of the time i.e. the workers of the day, ate domestic cats. Actually, at that time the domestic cat would have been an outdoor cat and probably better described as a community cat, a bit like the cats you see in developing countries today. It also begs the question as to whether Richard II liked cats and owned a cat. I can't find a record of this but it seems possible bearing in mind his informal title (if it is true).

If the peasants were starving, it is reasonable to suggest that they killed cats and ate them. It would be an early example of cat meat.

RELATED: 10 countries where they eat cat and dog meat (2020).

Today, more than 600 years later, cat meat is still consumed in more than 10 countries in the world. And I am referring to domestic, stray and feral cats. Yes, someone's pet is being killed and eaten somewhere on the planet as you read this, probably.

Exotic SH - bicolor. The flat-face distorts the bone structure causing issues such as teat duct overflow. This is not respecting the cat. Image: video screenshot.

This, of course, goes very much against respecting the cat. Respecting the cat means allowing the domestic cat to behave as naturally as possible. This will lead to contentment. Respecting the cat means relating to your domestic cat is a cat and not a baby. Respecting the cat means not breeding unhealthy cats. And it means caring for feral cats and not just killing them as they do in Australia in the many thousands Humankind should care for feral cats because we put them there through our carelessness.

Geography of domestic cat breeds

Most cat breeds originate in America. Here is a list of 80 breeds of pedigree domestic cat and the countries where they originated. The top country is by far America, as expected, and the second most prolific country in this respect is Britain. America is without question the greatest country for cat aficionados. It has the biggest marketplace, if you wish to call it that, for domestic cats.

The famous and doomed California Spangled. This was the world's most expensive cat at the time.

RELATED:  The History of the California Spangled Cat.

It should be noted, however, that the cat breeds represent quite a small percentage of the total number of domestic cats in America. I don't know the exact percentage but it'll be around 15% of all domestic cats in America will be purebred pedigree cats. The figure is around 10% in the UK.

The following breeds originate in America: Maine Coon, Mexican Hairless, Himalayan, Karakul (no idea about this breed), modern Persian (flat-face), Balinese, Ohio Rex, Kashmir (another breeder that I have not studied), Tonkinese, Bombay, California Rex, Oregon Rex, American bobtail, Javanese, Ragdoll, Snowshoe, Bengal, Ocicat, American Shorthair, American Wirehair, Exotic Shorthair, Somali, Tiffany, California Spangled, American Lynx, Malayan (no idea!), American Curl, York Chocolate, Ojos Azules, La Perm, Si-rex (I don't know this breed either) Selkirk Rex, Nebelung, Munchkin and RagaMuffin. Note: we have to add the other 14 or so dwarf cat breeds to the Munchkin.

RELATED: RagaMuffin Cat.

Cat breed originating in Britain include: British Shorthair, Colourpoint shorthair, Oriental shorthair, Cornish Rex, Havana Brown, British Angora, Javanese, Devon Rex, Scottish fold, Colourpoint British shorthair, Coupari (I don't think this breed exists any more), Tiffanie, Burmilla, Seychellois, Rexed Maine Coon and Suqutranese (another breed that I have never heard of). I am sure the last breed no longer exists.

RELATED: List of cat breeds with date and place of origin.

To the best of my knowledge, Australia has one purebred cat breed originating in its country namely the Australian Mist.

I list the remaining countries and the breeds originating in those countries:

• Burma (Myanmar): Burma;
• Canada: Cymric and Sphynx;
• Egypt: Egyptian Mau;
• Ethiopia: Abyssinian;
• France: Chartreux;
• Germany: Prussian Rex and German Rex;
• Holland: Dutch Rex;
• Iran: Persian;
• Isle of Man: Manx;
• Italy: Italian Rex, Colourpoint European Shorthair, European Shorthair;
• Japan: Japanese Bobtail, Japanese Bobtail longhair;
• Kenya: Sokoke;
• Russia: Siberian: Russian Blue, Kurilian, Urals Rex;
• Singapore: Singapura;
• Thailand: Siamese, Korat;
• Turkey:  Turkish Angora and Turkish Van.

If you can correct or add please do so in a comment. This list may be out of date or incomplete.

Source: Dr Desmond Morris: Cat World and myself. I added to the list which was made in 1992.

Where does the Cornish Rex come from?

The question in the title is asking about the origin of the cat breed called the Cornish Rex, one of the Rex cats. The first Cornish Rex cat was born in an old farmhouse on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, UK on 21 July 1950. Originally the cat was called the 'English Rex' until a second form of Rex cat was discovered in nearby Devon (Devon Rex). The map below shows you the location of Bodmin, Cornwall.

A red tabby male cat in a litter of five kittens born to a standard farm cat called Serena was seen to be different to the others because he had an unusual curly coat. The owner, Mrs Nina Ennismore kept the kitten and on the advice of a geneticist, I am told, mated the curly-coated male kitten back to his mother, a tortoiseshell cat.

Beautiful Cornish Rex cat with a Van-type coat. Photo: Pinterest.

This mating produced a litter containing two curly-coated kittens and one plain-coated kitten. They were back crossed a further time to produce further curly-coated kittens and the new breed called the Cornish Rex was established.

Clearly, a lot of inbreeding took place in those early days to establish this breed. This is typical of how breeders operate. They exercise a balancing act between too much inbreeding and fixing the appearance of the cat.

The first mail Cornish Rex cat and the founding cat of the breed 'Kallibunker'.

RELATED: Cornish Rex Cat.

Domestic cats today are significantly smaller and more varied in colour compared to the Ancient Egyptian era

This is a short note to remind us that today's domestic cat is smaller and more varied in coat colour and pattern compared to the domestic cats of Ancient Egypt and earlier.

Domestic cats today are significantly smaller and more varied in colour compared to the Ancient Egyptian era. Image in the public domain.

This is because all the domestic cats of Ancient Egypt were very similar to their wild ancestor the North African wildcat. This is essentially a mackerel/spotted tabby cat and the same size as a large domestic cat nowadays. The average domestic cat size in Ancient Egypt was the same as a current large domestic cat.

In illustrations from Ancient Egypt we see what appear to be semi-domesticated wildcats which is what they were. They were not fully domesticated in those days. No doubt they hunted for most of their nutrition. It is quite hard to visualise all the domestic cats being essentially the same as we are very familiar with a huge variety nowadays. 

Over several thousands of years the domestic cat evolved into a more delicate, smaller creature with a multitude of coat colours and patterns. They developed these new coat types because of informal selective breeding on the back of spontaneous genetic mutations. There was no need for the cats to wear great camouflage. If people liked the coat it stuck and did not fizzle out as it would have in the wild.

The blotched tabby pattern is relatively recent - read about it by clicking the link below:

Evolution of the blotched tabby pattern of domestic cats

1939 Cat Stroller!

This contraption looks more like a baby's pram than a cat stroller, which I am sure it is. I do not think that they had invented cat strollers in 1939. I have got to guess and say that this is a pram that has been "converted" to be a cat stroller. I don't mean converted in the normal sense like actual work taking place on the pram. 

Cat stroller 1939! Reddit user (u/Megatonin) said "My grandmother pushing a cat in a stroller circa 1939".

I mean that a cat was put inside a pram and pushed around. There is no top to it and therefore the cat can jump out at any time so, to all intents and purposes, this is not a cat stroller! It is a baby's pram but it is nice to describe it as a cat stroller. 

I'm sure that back in 1939 there was no need for one because almost every domestic cat was an indoor/outdoor cat. There was no real concept of full-time indoor cats at that time and therefore there was no requirement for a cat stroller. Cats were free to come and go as they please. That was 1939, just before World War II. The life of the domestic cat in those days was very different to today.

For how long have feral cats been in the United States?

Common sense dictates that feral cats have been in the United States since domestic cats have been in the country. And domestic cats have been in the country for less than 500 years. I'm going to be a bit vague because we know that European settlers brought ship's cats. Cats were brought over in the early 1600s but there were earlier settlements. However, we don't know whether there were ship's cats on these boats. I think it is fair say that feral cats have been in the US for less than 500 years, say 400 years.

Early settlers into the USA with a boy playing with a black cat. Image in the public domain.

I think it is fair, too, to state that as soon as domestic cats were landed onto American soil with English settlers, it is likely that they mated and created offspring and some of those offspring became feral. That's a reasonable assumption. They didn't have spaying and neutering of domestic cats in those days. The connection between cat caregiver and cat was looser. Full-time indoor cats were not on the radar.

All the ingredients were there, less than 500 years ago, for the creation of wondering domestic cats leading to stray cats leading to feral cats. To be a bit pedantic, we could argue that around 400 years ago there was one feral cat in America and today they are too numerous to count. Some people say that there are an equal number of feral cats to domestic cats which could put the number of feral cats at around 90 million! I think humankind screwed up cat domestication.

Other people quote much smaller numbers. Dr. John Bradshaw in his book Cat Sense states that the number of stray and feral cats in the United States is somewhere between 25 and 80 million. Feral cats obviously find living in America very conducive to procreation.

This may be because they have some distinct advantages such as decent weather in certain parts of America were it never gets too cold and the numbers are constantly added to by cat straying from the domestic cat population. Also, as they are less fearful of humans than genuine wild cats, they end up scavenging from human waste to sustain themselves when prey is difficult to find.

Thirdly, because feral cats should be domestic cats cared for in the home and because they resemble domestic cat unless they are very dirty, and because there are kind people in America, they are looked after by volunteers in TNR colonies. These good people spend their own money feeding them, neutering and spaying them, vaccinating them and providing veterinary care on occasions. A far cry from the life of the first feral cat.

P.S. Early illustrations of the era normally show dogs but not cats. Dogs were more popular in those days as they were distinctly utilitarian. The feral cat population in Australia is unknown. The authorities believe it is far too big at around 12m.

Romans unleashed starving lions on captives in Leicester, UK around 200 A.D.

A bronze key handle unearthed in Leicester, not far from where the remains of Richard III were found in a car park, has provided the first evidence that Roman Britain imported lions from Rome to execute captives in public places in Leicester, UK.

Romans unleashed starving lions on captives in Leicester, UK around 200 A.D. This is the bronze key handle providing the evidence. Photo: The Times.

The journey from Rome for the lions must have been highly arduous and it is believed that two thirds would have died. The odds were heavily stacked against them surviving. Dr. John Pearce, senior lecturer in archaeology at Kings College London mapped out how he thought the lions were transported from "those imperial parks around Rome, used for the Coliseum."

He imagined the journey by sea. He thought that they probably transported the lions to the "mouth of the River Rhône, with the lion caged on board ship, up river to Lyons then probably a wagon journey to the river Rhine, down river and across the North Sea to London or the mouth of the Humber."

The artefact depicts an unarmed barbarian grappling with a lion. Four naked young man cower in fear according to the report in The Sunday Times newspaper of August 8, 2021. The artefact is 120 mm long (4.5 inches) and weighs just over 300 g.

Dr. Pearce was quite surprised because the experts were unsure whether lions were used in Britain to execute captives and barbarians as happened in the Coliseum in Rome. A large number of lions were imported to Rome from Mesopotamia and North Africa.

The moral decay of the Roman Empire is thought to be evidenced by the cruel execution of captives in public spectacles. That culture was brought to Britain around 200 A.D. The Roman rule of Britain ended in 410 A.D.

It is believed that some prisoners would attempt to commit suicide to avoid their agonising death by a starved lion.

Dr. John Pearce worked with Dr. Gavin Speed and Nicholas Cooper, both archaeologists from Leicester University. Their findings will be published on Monday in the academic journal Britannia.

The Barbarian depicted in the key handle resembles other portrayals in Roman Britain. The handle would have been a working part of the building. The Coliseum in Leicester would have been considerably smaller than the one in Rome.

Researchers are trying to identify the first Briton to be killed by a lion. They are analysing the remains of a gladiator found in a cemetery to the south-west of York. There are puncture wounds and they want to find out the cause.

World's oldest known pet cemetery

There may be others, currently unknown, but the oldest recorded pet cemetery in the world is in the Egyptian port of Berenice. The map shows you where it is. The archaeologists have been digging in what appears to be a rubbish dump in that city and they have discovered a burial ground which is nearly 2,000 years old. 

The interesting aspect of this pet burial ground is that they have decided that the animals buried there were genuine pets and not sacrifices to the gods. Many thousands of animals particularly cats were bred and killed for sacrifice but this is not the case with these animals. They were often old and buried in a very careful way sometimes with collars and with objects which indicated that they were cared for.

Cat buried at the world's oldest known pet cemetery. Photo: Marta Osypińska

Unsurprisingly the vast majority of the remains are of cats reflecting this era of cat worship which did not genuinely translate to great cat care. Of the 585 animals that they excavated 536 were cats, 32 were dogs; there were 15 monkeys, one fox and one falcon. Not one was mummified. Some were in makeshift coffins. They decided that the animals were old and sick, more evidence that they were genuine pets and looked after until they died of natural causes rather than being killed for sacrifice. In Ancient Egypt often kittens were killed for sacrifice and mummified and cat mummies were sometimes scams by priests. This is one reason why it can't be said to be a golden era for cats. Wild cats were also sacrificed and buried on river banks. The remains of 80,000 wild cats were found on the Nile's riverbanks.

Some of the cats were wearing collars made from iron or beaded necklaces. Sometimes the ornaments were precious. They also found a piece of ceramic with text on it. This is called an ostracon. In this instance the text told the cat's owner not to worry about their cat because someone else was looking after him or her. This seems to be an early version of cat sitting! But it strongly supports that pet ownership was alive and well in Ancient Egypt.

Perhaps at one time people thought that ancient Egyptians did not have a concept of pet ownership or what we prefer to call 'pet guardianship' or caretaking. But that thought was perhaps always misplaced for several reasons one of which is that the first known pet was a wild cat buried with their owner on Cyprus almost 10,000 years ago. That, the experts believe, is evidence of the beginning of cat domestication, pet ownership and the concept of pets.

Berenice is a port as mentioned and perhaps it is a place where more than 2,000 years ago traders came on ships with their companion animals including cats, dogs and the occasional monkey brought from India.

The remains of the animals had been well preserved by the dry Egyptian desert. The photograph shows the remains of a cat buried in a blanket. We can see the cat's canine teeth and we have a glimpse of their incisor teeth as well.

The archaeologist in charge of the dig was researcher Marta Osypińska, a zooarchaeologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

• https://pictures-of-cats.org/animal-abuse-and-religious-scams-in-ancient-egypt.html
• https://pictures-of-cats.org/why-did-ancient-egyptians-shave-off-their-eyebrows-to-mourn-their-dead-cats.html

P.S. There is one aspect of archeology with which I strongly disagree. They are exhuming the remains of people and pets. Is this not disrespectful of both? We rightly have to get permission and have a good reason to exhume someone buried in a graveyard but when animals and pets are buried thousands of years ago it is a free for all. Something wrong there.