BRIEF HISTORY In the Company Feline ancestors of today’s domestic of Cats cats still live and thrive in Asia and Africa. How cats have survived, thrived and captivated us for thousands of years. BY SHERRY BAKER f your cat’s bossy analysis shows that most cats had preservation, were both positioned attitude and the stripes and coloring we associate with heads pointed west. entertaining antics with today’s tabby. That suggests to Vigne that the cat have you catering to Archaeological evidence concurs: could well have been a beloved pet. I her needs, you are Stone and clay statues up to 10,000 not alone. Your thoroughly modern years old suggest that cats were kitty is descended from a long line culturally important in the areas GLORY DAYS IN EGYPT of ancestors who likely used those that are now Syria, Turkey and Researchers say that cats have long same skills to cajole, sneak and work Israel. And bones of cats from about been helpers to human farmers in their way into the lives of humans that time period have also been several areas of the Mediterranean for thousands of years. “What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of Cats working on farms some 10,000 cats?” the American essayist, naturalist and feline lover Henry years ago, at the dawn of human David Thoreau asked back in the 19th century. Today, the answers agriculture, looked like the tabby of today. are finally at hand: Thanks to new archaeological discoveries and advances in DNA analysis, we’ve come up with some surprising found on the island of Cyprus, where and the Near East. But some 4,000 insights into this most ancient pet. they presumably arrived by boat. years ago, in ancient Egypt, they There’s evidence that at least were elevated in status to much, some of the cats could have been much more. “Egypt was an agrarian DOWN ON THE FARM pets at that time too. Denis Vigne, society, and therefore cats became DNA studies have traced most of head researcher at the French very important to the people who today’s domesticated cats, species National Center for Scientific were tilling the fields and storing name Felis silvestris catus, to ancient Research (CNRS), and colleagues the grain, because cats could get rid wildcats of the subspecies Felis discovered the remains of a cat of vermin. But it didn’t take long for silvestris lybica. These wildcats were on Cyprus, buried close to a cats to find their way into Egyptian found in North Africa and the Near 9,500-year-old human grave filled homes and then become part of East at the dawn of human farming with valuables like polished stones. the ancient Egyptians’ everyday An African wildcat (Felis lybica some 10,000 years ago, and genetic The cat and man, in similar states of routine,” explains Egyptologist cafra), perches in a tree. 30 UNDERSTANDING CATS 31 Modern kitty litter has allowed cats to live inside. A bronze statuette Melinda Hartwig. “But Egyptians of Bastet, a sacred didn’t domesticate cats. Cats animal that Egyptians FROM ASHES TO AWESOME associated with fertility. domesticated themselves. They were lovable pets as well as hunters.” Ancient The ancient Egyptians looked at The Story of Cat Litter Egyptians the natural world and saw in it the looked at cats embodiment of the divine, Hartwig, and saw in them curator of Egyptian art at Emory CATS WERE LARGELY the spark of University’s Michael C. Carlos relegated to the outdoors until the divinity. Museum, explains. “They didn’t arrival of a 20th-century concept: look at cats as divine, but they the indoor “toilet” equivalent for saw cats as having a spark of felines, the litter box, allowing what makes divinity.” cats to be domesticated at last. From that came depictions of Messy and sometimes unsanitary gods and goddesses with feline things like ashes, dirt, sawdust qualities, often animal heads and and sand were first used in boxes human bodies. Two of the most so that cats given the opportunity contained, like clumping agents; important cat goddesses in Egyptian to live inside had a place to “do antidust sprays, including PTFE mythology were the fierce lion- their business.” But the lives of (better known as Teflon); and headed goddess Sekhmet, cats and cat owners changed perfumelike scents. a protector of justice, and Bastet, dramatically in 1948, when a Litter boxes now come in a large associated with the home, fertility Michigan man named Edward variety too—deep pans, covered and childbirth. Lowe gave us modern litter. boxes and disposable pans. A visit to Divine Felines: Cats Lowe worked in his father’s Battery-powered self-cleaning of Ancient Egypt, an exhibition at company, which sold industrial litter boxes work with a rakelike the Carlos Museum, reveals the absorbents like sawdust and clay. instrument that moves across and pervasiveness of cats in Egyptian One day a neighbor asked if he through the litter, sifting out waste life: cat-shaped wooden coffins had any sawdust she could have. and depositing it into a receptacle for cat mummies; amulets in cat She’d been using ashes in a box at one end of the box that closes forms; luxury items decorated with for her cat to “go” in, which left automatically. This holds in odors felines; and a cast-bronze figurine paw prints all over her home. Lowe until the cat owner removes and of a cat nursing four kittens. Tomb had a bag of liquid-absorbent clay dumps the container. paintings show cats, realistically called Fuller’s earth handy, and he But are these improvements portrayed, peering out from under thought that might work better. always best for cats? And do cats their masters’ chairs. It did. The neighbor noted that even like them? Notably, when felines died, they the clay didn’t track and vowed Cats seem most agreeable to were embalmed, mummified and never to use anything else in her a clumping, unscented, simple buried with or near their owners; feline’s box. She shared the news litter, according to Atlanta living grieving humans shaved with cat-loving neighbors, and veterinarian Tabitha Tanis, D.V.M. off their own eyebrows in demand for the clay grew. She notes that opting for low-dust, mourning when their pet The rest was a new chapter in nonscented litter is especially cats expired. Statues of cats cat history. Absorbent litter, which important for cats; moreover, were often adorned with cut down on the strong odor of they often dislike the feeling of gold earrings and nose cat urine as well as the tracking different-shaped pellets and the rings. Were Egyptians so problem, likely played a large role crystals found in “fancier” litters. taken with their feline in the popularity of pet cats. “If your cat is not scratching companions that they Over the years, a host of in their litter and covering their made jewelry for them? different types of cat litters have waste, they may not like the way “That’s the main been developed. Some are made the litter feels,” Tanis says. This cat mummy question I from recycled newspaper and When it comes to litter boxes, dates to between get asked at even corn, but most still rely on meanwhile, shallow, open pans In ancient Egyptian mythology, the cat, Bastet, 672 and 332 B.C.E. and lectures,” some form of clay. are often preferred by cats, sits in the Louvre. was a goddess of fertility, childbirth and home. Hartwig The most-modern litters often especially elderly felines with answers with a include many additives that arthritis, although some will adjust laugh. “My answer, Lowe’s original Kitty Litter never to boxes with closed tops. 32 UNDERSTANDING CATS 33 BRIEF HISTORY always, is this—would you want to desert climes of the Middle East pierce a cat’s ear? You’d be sliced and through Europe to the Americas POPULATION CONTROL diced. Most likely, the addition of was through long journeys by jewelry on the statues was to show sea. “Though cats are said to hate Safer Spaying and Neutering that cats were an aspect of the sun water, it has always been their way Cats on ships can god Ra. The gold jewelry is yellow around,” writes Abigail Tucker in keep rats under like the sun.” The Lion in the Living Room (2016). CATS’ SEX LIVES WERE LONG cats became more widely control during As companions on ships, cats not a problem for humans. When available in the 1930s, the feral, long voyages. only kept rats under control during feline reproductive systems stray and unwanted cat population BRUTALITY OF the long voyages, Tucker points out, were unchecked, females went dumped at shelters increased. THE CAT INQUISITION but they were particularly suited into heat, “calling for mates” Before 1970, euthanasia rates in At first, reverence for cats spread to ocean journey: Coming from the and producing litters of mostly the U.S. rapidly increased—and around the globe. Cats in Norse desert, they didn’t need much water. unwanted kittens. Male cats shelters routinely euthanized and Celtic myths from Europe, for And, unlike humans, they didn’t roamed, looking for females, and more than 100 cats (and dogs) per instance, are depicted as magical and even need vitamin C, so scurvy in fought loudly with one another, 1,000 people in their communities, powerful. But it was not to last. With cats was not an issue at all. And causing injuries and infections. according the Humane Society of the rise of the Roman Empire and the perhaps most important, the cats So it’s no wonder some cat lovers the United States.