THE KITTY BOOK OF GENEALOGY

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE HER

- Dr Reeja George

OUR EVERGREEN COMPANIONSHIP

The evergreen association between cats and humans goes back to over a thousand years. Today we have quite a lot of evidence from fossil records of early human settlements that shed light on the inextricable links between cats and humans although most of the cats in these cases are thought to have been wild in nature. Among the early humans, the Egyptians were formerly thought to have been the first to resort to the taming of cats some 3600 years ago as is evidenced by the presence of the skulls of cats being found in Egyptian cat burial grounds. However recent evidence now suggests that the domestication of the cats most probably took place even earlier than this, some 10,000 years ago as humans settled down and began to cultivate grains. Evidence in this regard from an area in Israel that is also referred to as the Fertile Crescent indicated the presence of cats and it is assumed that cats played a role in controlling rodents in grain stores of this area. Moving on further, there is also a more authentic report of a first domestication of cats some 9,500 years ago from Cyprus where a cat was found in the grave of its possible owner.

KITTYISTOCRACY (!) DON’T UNDERESTIMATE HER