And you, once again stroking your furry purr, did not think at least once, where did the cats on Earth come from? These mustachioed and tailed animals have been living next to people for many millennia, they are pets. But where did the cats come from as a species? Why were they started as pets? There are many assumptions about the origin of cats, here there are completely implausible versions, and with mythological implications, and scientific statements.
Grandparents Cats Creodonts
The official version of the origin of the cat is this one. Scientists believe that the first feline were evil creodonts. They ate meat, brutally cracking down on their next prey, were much larger than the tiger we knew, and even more so, their beloved domestic cat. All scientists adhere to this version, although they have no direct evidence of this. When asked by children about where the cats came from, this version is often told to them.
Creodonts inhabited the vastness of the Earth fifty million years ago. These were dangerous predators that terrified all representatives of the fauna. Everything that moved, ran away, chewed into food.
Many years later, thanks to evolution and amazing reincarnations, the first lions, saber-toothed tigers, cheetahs appeared. And after millennia, we were able to see a cat that we can take home with pleasure and without fear. But this is too simple an answer to the question of where domestic cats came from. Take a look at mythology?
Noah's Ark did not transport cats
Everyone knows about the mission of the legendary Noah's Ark. This huge ship became a salvation for all kinds of animals. Only then there were no cats then, and therefore they were not on Noah's ark. According to legend, during a long voyage the excrement of animals began to interfere with a normal existence.
Mice and rats proliferated at such a rate that food supplies could not be enough until the end of swimming, as the rodents were devoured. Terrible starvation threatened people and animals, and God himself came to the rescue again. He told Noah to stroke the trunk of an elephant, and at the same moment a pig appeared from the trunk, it destroyed all the stinking excrement. Then Noah, again on the advice of the Almighty, stroked the nose of a lion, and a cat emerged from it. It was she who saved the inhabitants of the ark, capturing all the mice.
Cats flew from the cat planet
I want to believe in the unearthly origin of cats. The first images of these creatures appeared in Egypt, and there is a myth that the first cat aliens arrived in Egypt. They were completely bald, could communicate with people by the power of thought.
According to legend, one of the kitties wandered into the forest and met there an ordinary and shaggy steppe cat. They fell in love, and the bald cat refused to leave the Earth, she chose love. The couple was happy throughout their feline life, and they gave birth to furry offspring, which became the ancestors of today's domestic cats.
Cats are born from the sun god
Peering into the piercing and deep eyes of the purrs, the question of where the cats came from naturally arises in the head. These graceful creatures seem mystical creatures sent to us by the Creator himself.
According to the wisest pharaoh Akhenaten, he was the son of the god of the Sun and cats were his uterine brothers and sisters. Only he was born in the guise of man. It is not without reason that the bodies of our pets are filled with such heat that is able to treat all human ailments. Sounds fantastic? But Pythagoras, one of the most famous people of antiquity, did not think so. He adhered to Akhenaten’s opinion and already built his hypothesis of the extraterrestrial origin of cats, as his life had expired. He died without proving to people that cats are real deities. Everyone ridiculed Pythagoras, did not believe him, but this man made a huge contribution to science.
Messengers of distant stars
No matter how ridiculous it may seem, but there are many great minds who are completely sure that cats in the literal sense of the word have fallen to the Earth from the Moon!
Plotinus (the Neoplatonic philosopher) was even able to argue his opinion about the origin of cats. He wrote in Ennead irrefutable evidence precisely in favor of the moon. In his opinion, cats are the creatures of this companion because they perfectly see in the dark, are active at night, their behavior depends on the phases of the moon.
According to St. Augustine, who wrote the work “On the City of God,” cats were sent to us from those very distant stars where the human soul dwells after death. Almighty only showed them the way there and back, and they can communicate with the spirits. But not without reason people are sure that cats get along well with ghosts, see them, which is not given to humans.
NASA claims that aliens look like cats
Perhaps it was not for nothing that in the Middle Ages people believed that a cat is an unearthly creation. Not so long ago, everyone was overwhelmed by the news of the discovery of American astronauts. The guys landed on the moon and found many unusual objects there. They resembled small coins in size. Bringing artifacts with them, the astronauts gave them to the laboratory. The result of the analysis of all was simply shocking: a similar composition on Earth exists, these are cat feces. Well, tell me, where did they come from on the moon?
Since then, NASA scientists began to develop the hypothesis that cats are real aliens and all aliens look that way!
Wild middle ages
I would like to escape a little from the thought of where the cats came from and talk about their role in human life. Now nothing threatens these animals, but more recently, cats were subjected to terrible tortures and executions. People believed that purrs were helpers of witches and the devil himself and burned them at the stake.
There was another, no less terrible, killing of cats. During the Middle Ages, once a year a holiday was held in Ipern, it was called "Cat's Day". For the cats themselves, this day did not bode well, they were dumped in huge quantities from the highest towers.
In the 18th century, a bishop from Germany ordered all cats to cut off their ears and tails, at the same time the kings of France had fun watching the murky torment at the stake.
A nightmare, and more. Only in Egypt cats were deified, during the life they took care of them, and all representatives of the caudate family lived in luxury. After the death of the cats, they were mummified and buried next to the pharaohs.
In Russia, this beast from the very beginning did not appear to humans to be a god or a damn; it was kept for catching mice and rats. By the way, where did cats come from in Russia?
The appearance of cats in Russia
Excavations carried out in Russia and the former Soviet Union showed that cats on our lands appeared in the seventh century. But the first descriptions of these animals are in documents dating from the eleventh century. It is assumed that outlandish animals were brought to Russia by foreign sailors and sold for a lot of money. People liked this creature, because his eyes glow in the dark, and from any height falls on all four legs, and even rumbles!
Over time, cats began to multiply and breed, and now in the peasant huts, the beast caught mice and rats, guarding household supplies.
There is a legend that Peter the Great himself adored these creatures and, seeing how the next cook was chasing the fluffy, proclaimed cats to be inviolable creatures. Ask why the cook needs a cat? It was just this animal that brought him a dead rat to prove his work and indispensability and laid it on a cutting table. That's all. But since then no one could offend tailed in Russia.
Where did the Siamese cats come from?
The Siamese cat, which many associate with the demon, appeared in Thailand between 1350 and 1750. This is a purebred beast, and man did not make efforts to breed.
The first Siamese people are described in the letters of the 19th century. It says that these cats were considered sacred animals, kept in Buddhist temples. They were allowed to start only priests and royal families.
Today, everyone can afford this breed of pet, they are bred in nurseries.
Where did the sphynx cats come from?
In fact, there are a huge number of sphinx breeds and not all are popular. Where did the bald cats come from? This question torments a lot of people. Description of hairless cats has been available since ancient times, even the Aztecs could be their masters.
At all times, kittens deprived of hair were born on the territory of our planet. They were not of interest to people and simply destroyed. The first to decide to breed was a resident of Canada when, in 1966, he discovered a hairless cat in his cat’s litter. The baby was called Prunt and later brought to his mother. Again normal and hairless kittens were born. Then bald cats and cats came together until shaggy creatures completely disappeared in the litters. So the sphinxes that are now popular appeared, and they owe their origin to an ordinary mutation.
What if the legend is true, and once bald alien cats visited our Earth, and now cats are born bald kittens, recalling their origin? This will remain a mystery forever!