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Cat History Cats were domesticated by 3,500 years ago. We have records to prove this from Ancient Egypt, but we don't know when the process began. The remains of a cat have been found at a neolithic site at Jericho dating from 9,000 years ago, but there is no proof that those felines were domesticated ones. Wild cats->domesticated cats.
Cats were worshipped as gods by the Egyptians in Egypt. Egypt's cat is believed to either be an Abyssinian or Egyptian Mau. The punishment for killing one in Egypt was death. When a cat was buried it was buried with the corpse being bound in wrappings of different colours and its face covered with a sculptured wooden mask. Some were placed in cat-shaped wooden coffins, others were encased in plaited straws. They were buried in enormous feline cemeteries in huge numbers- literally millions of them. The cat goddess was called Bastet, meaning She-of-Bast. Bast was the city where the main cat temple was situated, and where each spring as many as half a million people convegered for the sacred festival. About 10,000 mummified cats were buried at each of these festivals to honour the feline virgin-goddess (who was presumably a forerunner of the Virgin Mary). Black cats were seen as evil in Salem, Ohio, USA. Some cats are kept on farms to catch vermin and mice. Cats now are kept as pets. *Some of the information here is from a book called Catwatching by Desmond Morris. Pick it up at your local bookstore. It has many coloured pictures, information on why do cats do that? and many more things. Get it while supplies last! Other books for cats are: 1) The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Cat Breeds by Angela Rixon. 2) The Complete Cat Book by Paddy Cutts. Magazines: 1) Cat Fancy Magazine 2) Cats USA Magazine Also check out your local library for books on cat care, history, and what kind of breed you should get. Whether you go, you can find books, magazines, videos, paphlets and all sorts of stuff on cats!:) |
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