The Magical Mystery of Cats
Cats have a life span of 22 years, and have seen every thing from Egyptian worship to slaughter in the Grand Inquisition. Their mystery is in their independent attitude. Even red necks are starting to love them. Living with a cat you will soon notice their eyes follow things around the room your eyes can not see.
HOW DID THEY BECOME A PART OF OUR LIVES?
The cat was first domesticated some 5000 years ago. This took place in the valley of the Nile, in what is now Sudan, at that time Upper Egypt.
Later, lifestyles learned to till the soil, and settle into communities. This consisted of keeping grain in baskets, which attracted mice and rats. An abundance of mice & rats attracted the African Wildcat.
The cats ate the rats, so people started encouraging the cats to stay by leaving fish-heads and other scraps. Being closer to man, the cats had very few enemies and moved in on a permanent basis.
Being a naturally calm species, the African Wildcat quickly adapted to people, allowing it to at first be approached, then petted, and eventually to be held.
In addition the cat purred. The farmer could work all day in the fields and come home tired to the bone. The cat would jump onto his lap and proceed to snuggle and purr. We're talking direct massage of the spirit here! Let a cat snuggle and purr before bedtime and you'll sleep twice as deeply.”
HOW DID CATS GET MIXED UP WITH MAGIC?
The early days were the Golden Days in the history of catdom. Everybody wanted his own cat. Cats rapidly spread throughout the cities and villages. This was to be their downfall.
The tendency of cats to be independent and do their own thing also made them seem mysterious. People began to relate this mysterious quality of cats, as in Egypt, to religion. Cats became the center of various cults.
The Church at this time was into the Grand Inquisition, passionately killing people as well as cats.
During this period, hundreds of thousands of cats were tortured, hung, burned at the stake, roasted alive, or killed on sight. So powerful was this persecution that the European cat population dropped to less than ten per cent of its pre- inquisitional number.
The Black Plague & Cats
There was a brief distraction during the years of the Black Death. With people dying every where, no one had the time or the desire to persecute the cats. The cats rapidly multiplied and attacked the rats carrying the plague.
There is some evidence that the plague ended because of three connected factors: so many people died that the fields could not be planted; the lack of food in the surrounding countryside drove the rats into the cities; the sudden increase in the number of cats killing rats broke the chain necessary to perpetuate the plague.
Unfortunately once the crisis was over mankind resumed the feline inquisition. This persecution didn't end until well into the twentieth century, when the various Christian churches finally stopped emphasizing witches and their familiars, which were almost always cats.
Cat Information - http://www.geocities.com/heartland/ranch/2626/age.htm