i don't think ANY of us are surprised at this: Why Do Cats Hang Around Us? (Hint: They Can't Open Cans)
Genetic Research Suggests Felines 'Domesticated Themselves'
By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer
Your hunch is correct. Your cat decided to live with you, not the other way around. The sad truth is, it may not be a final decision.
But don't take this feline diffidence personally. It runs in the family. And it goes back a long way -- about 12,000 years, actually.
Those are among the inescapable conclusions of a genetic study of the origins of the domestic cat, being published today in the journal Science.
The findings, drawn from an analysis of nearly 1,000 cats around the world, suggest that the ancestors of today's tabbies, Persians and Siamese wandered into Near Eastern settlements at the dawn of agriculture. They were looking for food, not friendship...........
Study Traces Cat’s Ancestry to Middle East
By NICHOLAS WADE
Some 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Near East, an audacious wildcat crept into one of the crude villages of early human settlers, the first to domesticate wheat and barley. There she felt safe from her many predators in the region, such as hyenas and larger cats.
The rodents that infested the settlers’ homes and granaries were sufficient prey. Seeing that she was earning her keep, the settlers tolerated her, and their children greeted her kittens with delight.
At least five females of the wildcat subspecies known as Felis silvestris lybica accomplished this delicate transition from forest to village. And from these five matriarchs all the world’s 600 million house cats are descended.
A scientific basis for this scenario has been established by Carlos A. Driscoll of the National Cancer Institute and his colleagues. He spent more than six years collecting species of wildcat in places as far apart as Scotland, Israel, Namibia and Mongolia. He then analyzed the DNA of the wildcats and of many house cats and fancy cats..........
oh by the way, i'm a dog person. i love cats, don't get me wrong. i lived with five cats once (not mine although one was JUST like me. that was duchess kahanamoku de la tunette). the others were, pearl (a shear beauty and delight. almost every day she'd leave us a present on our doorstep. it was very noble of her. she could very well have eaten it herself, but no, she left it for US ), sven (a scamp), mustapha (an all around good egg of a feline) and of course EVERY ONE'S favorite jean-paul. i believe i have mentioned him from time to time. we thought he was a runt. when we got him he was supposedly eight weeks old. NO WAY, when we took him to the vets we found out he was about 3 1/2 weeks old. we named him jean-paul (and he did speak french) after pope jean-paul i. we figured like the pope, he wouldn't last more than 33 days. we were wrong. that cat was so un-catlike it was amazing! you had to be VERY careful when you got out of your car. as soon as you opened the door, he'd jump in. HE LOVED GOING FOR RIDES. he loved kids too. any large gathering of folk - as i said, that cat was NOT like any cat anyone had come across before. he'd seek out groups of children in our hood. he just wanted to get in the middle and play with them. he LOVED going for walks with you. he'd follow along. when he saw there was no giant canary or mouse at the end of the walk, he'd get pissed and you'd have to pick him up and carry him home. jean-paul also loved going to the vets. do you know ANY cat (or dog) that LIKES going to the vets? well i don't. he fought a lot so he WAS at the vets a lot. he was silver and buff colored-stripes. when they shaved him (to put the mostacholi like drains in him every time he got an infection from a fight) you could see his skin was striped too. his ears were HUGE and bat-like. he was gorgeous and he KNEW IT. the vet technicians delighted in having jean-paul as a visitor. they never left him in a cage. he was always allowed to roam the premises freely. they also discovered what a fan of peanut butter jean-paul was.
sometimes jean-paul wouldn't come home for a day or two. nothing to worry about - he always turned up. then the times away from home, started getting longer and longer. i wasn't worried though. he ALWAYS came back fatter, sweeter smelling AND cleaner than when he took off. he obviously adopted another set of humans. one day jean-paul just never came home. i just think he decided to stay with that other family.
Genetic Research Suggests Felines 'Domesticated Themselves'
By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer
Your hunch is correct. Your cat decided to live with you, not the other way around. The sad truth is, it may not be a final decision.
But don't take this feline diffidence personally. It runs in the family. And it goes back a long way -- about 12,000 years, actually.
Those are among the inescapable conclusions of a genetic study of the origins of the domestic cat, being published today in the journal Science.
The findings, drawn from an analysis of nearly 1,000 cats around the world, suggest that the ancestors of today's tabbies, Persians and Siamese wandered into Near Eastern settlements at the dawn of agriculture. They were looking for food, not friendship...........
Study Traces Cat’s Ancestry to Middle East
By NICHOLAS WADE
Some 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Near East, an audacious wildcat crept into one of the crude villages of early human settlers, the first to domesticate wheat and barley. There she felt safe from her many predators in the region, such as hyenas and larger cats.
The rodents that infested the settlers’ homes and granaries were sufficient prey. Seeing that she was earning her keep, the settlers tolerated her, and their children greeted her kittens with delight.
At least five females of the wildcat subspecies known as Felis silvestris lybica accomplished this delicate transition from forest to village. And from these five matriarchs all the world’s 600 million house cats are descended.
A scientific basis for this scenario has been established by Carlos A. Driscoll of the National Cancer Institute and his colleagues. He spent more than six years collecting species of wildcat in places as far apart as Scotland, Israel, Namibia and Mongolia. He then analyzed the DNA of the wildcats and of many house cats and fancy cats..........
oh by the way, i'm a dog person. i love cats, don't get me wrong. i lived with five cats once (not mine although one was JUST like me. that was duchess kahanamoku de la tunette). the others were, pearl (a shear beauty and delight. almost every day she'd leave us a present on our doorstep. it was very noble of her. she could very well have eaten it herself, but no, she left it for US ), sven (a scamp), mustapha (an all around good egg of a feline) and of course EVERY ONE'S favorite jean-paul. i believe i have mentioned him from time to time. we thought he was a runt. when we got him he was supposedly eight weeks old. NO WAY, when we took him to the vets we found out he was about 3 1/2 weeks old. we named him jean-paul (and he did speak french) after pope jean-paul i. we figured like the pope, he wouldn't last more than 33 days. we were wrong. that cat was so un-catlike it was amazing! you had to be VERY careful when you got out of your car. as soon as you opened the door, he'd jump in. HE LOVED GOING FOR RIDES. he loved kids too. any large gathering of folk - as i said, that cat was NOT like any cat anyone had come across before. he'd seek out groups of children in our hood. he just wanted to get in the middle and play with them. he LOVED going for walks with you. he'd follow along. when he saw there was no giant canary or mouse at the end of the walk, he'd get pissed and you'd have to pick him up and carry him home. jean-paul also loved going to the vets. do you know ANY cat (or dog) that LIKES going to the vets? well i don't. he fought a lot so he WAS at the vets a lot. he was silver and buff colored-stripes. when they shaved him (to put the mostacholi like drains in him every time he got an infection from a fight) you could see his skin was striped too. his ears were HUGE and bat-like. he was gorgeous and he KNEW IT. the vet technicians delighted in having jean-paul as a visitor. they never left him in a cage. he was always allowed to roam the premises freely. they also discovered what a fan of peanut butter jean-paul was.
sometimes jean-paul wouldn't come home for a day or two. nothing to worry about - he always turned up. then the times away from home, started getting longer and longer. i wasn't worried though. he ALWAYS came back fatter, sweeter smelling AND cleaner than when he took off. he obviously adopted another set of humans. one day jean-paul just never came home. i just think he decided to stay with that other family.
NOTE: the picture is NOT jean-paul. the ears are too small, the eyes are not green and the markings aren't as distinctive as jean-pauls. i have pictures of him somewhere. i'll keep searching till i find them
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