Why You Should Have Cats As Pets

When did man first tame the wild cats and allow them into their homes. Apparently, about a thousand years ago. Read on about their origins

- Farzana Contractor

There are just so many interesting facts about cats, it is amazing. Before we start to write about the different breeds, we want to share ‘cat trivia’ with our readers.

So let’s start with their origin. Or at least when were cats first domesticated?

It is generally believed that the Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats, giving them space in their homes, their lives, their hearts, their tombs. But that doesn’t seem to be true. The oldest known pet cat seems to have existed 9,500 years ago. And this predates Egyptian cats by over 4,000 years. This interesting fact about cats came about in 2004. It was the French archaeologists who discovered a 9,500-year-old cat grave in Cyprus. This makes it the oldest known pet cat.

Recent revelations according to DNA research also shows that people began to domesticate cats in the Fertile Crescent about 7,000 years ago. This was based on the discovery of remains, from around the same time, of the Near Eastern wildcat in Europe, adding to the cat’s evolutionary story.