The cat’s origin

For its origin we must go back to Southeast Asia. The roots of are beloved house cat can probably be found here. And not only the roots of our house cat, all cats have been created according to the same anatomic model and people therefore assume that this “primal; cat” evolved amongst others in our house cat but also the lion, tiger, jaguar etc. The cat has a collective ancestor which can be seen in the anatomic model which is exactly the same for all cats. An exception is the Pampas cat with 18 chromosome pairs; all other cats have 19 pairs. Researchers divide the cat in 2 groups; one group includes cheetahs, lions and leopards. This group is characterized by the fact that they cannot retract their claws. The second group which includes our house cat is divided in smaller and larger breeds. Except for not being able to retract their claws the first group has another feature compared to the second group, which is roaring. This roaring is made possible in the first group because of their ossified tongue bone. . This extra piece of cartilage however also causes that they can only purr when they breathe out. The much larger puma which can purr both during breathing in and breathing out belongs to the same group as our house cat

Descent of the house cat:
Our house cat belongs to group 2 and researchers claim that only one out of this group is the ancestor of our house cat, namely the African Isabella cat (felis silvestris silvestris). Although in a later stage interference of the wild cat (felis silvestris silvestris) and the steppe cat (feils silvestris ornata) isn’t excluded. 

When exactly our house cat decided that the human being could be a good partner isn’t clear. People assume that it took place about 2000 before Christ. A time in which the human being started to store up a lot of food in order to bridge the winter. Large sheds with grains attracted vermins like mice and rats and made it a great spot for the cat to spend some time here. The people were grateful that the cat “rescued” them from the intruders and that is when the human being started to cherish the cat’s presence. The Egyptian Mau finds its origin in the old Egypt. 4000 years ago he was honored there as a God. ‘Mau’ means “cat” or “sun” in the Egyptian language. In the beginning he almost was the defender of the human beings because he killed mice (grain thieves) and snakes. If someone killed a cat or treated him bad, he was sentenced to death. The Mau was a member of the family, got good food and was given a lot of prestige. The cat also experienced less rosy times. The discovery of the Archaeologists proofs this; they discovered enormous grave yards, like in Beni Hassan, where more than 300.000 sacrificed cats had been buried. Also, later in the Middle Ages many cats had been burnt alive under the guise of devilish idolization.  

Sailors
Nowadays many ships also have a “ship’s cat”. Sailors also have to protect their food stock from vermins. About 1000 before Christ probably the first house cats went to the Middle East, which now is Italy and from there on they gradually ended up in Asia and Europe. Because they were still taken on board, they also reached the New World when in about 1600 voyages of discovery and trade became more and more important.

Asia
In order to protect holy writings from mice, cats were often held in temples. They also kept rats and mice away from the precious silk cocoons. The silk trade was very important for China and Japan.

Australia:
Cats started to feel at ease in the whole world, except for Australia: The house cat was the first of the felines who entered the fifth continent.