Ancestry
The exact history of human interaction with cats is still somewhat vague. Cat ancestry dates back to some 50 million years ago, but the domesticated cats that we have grown to love today were domesticated by the Egyptians only some 6000 years ago. The earliest written records of the attempt to domesticate cats date to ancient Egypt circa 4000 BC, where cats were employed to keep mice and rats away from grain stores. Our feline friends' affinity for rooting out vermin and rodents endeared them to ancient cultures looking to protect their grain and crops.
It is believed that today's domestic cats have evolved from the African wild cats. The Egyptians adopted the African wild cats and were subsequently transplanted to Italy (and eventually all of Europe) around 900 B.C. by Phoenician traders.
Deified
Ancient Egyptians regarded cats as embodiments of the goddess Bast, also known as Bastet or Thet. BAST had the head of a cat and was surrounded by kittens. The penalty for killing a cat was death, and when a cat died it was sometimes mummified in the same way as a human.
Vilified
In the Middle Ages, cats were often thought to be witches' familiars, and during festivities were sometimes burnt alive or thrown off tall buildings. Some historians theorize that widespread superstition-induced Christian enmity towards cats accelerated The Black Death (generally held to have been an outbreak of Bubonic Plague). The speed with which the Black Death spread through 14th century Europe led many to believe that the Devil was responsible for the disease. This belief led the Pope to declare that cats, who were known to roam freely, were in league with the devil. Because of the declaration, a great many cats were killed in Europe. The sudden decrease in the cat population led to a massive increase in the number of rats, the number of plague-carrying fleas that fed upon them, and the number of human plague victims, which is what the declaration had aimed to reduce.
Today some people still believe that black cats are unlucky, or that it is unlucky if a black cat crosses ones path, while others believe that black cats are lucky.
Cats are also still to this day associated with witchcraft. Black cats in particular are associated with Halloween festivities. Wiccans and other practioners of Neopaganism believe that cats are good-natured animals that are attuned to the spirit world and can sense evil spirits.
In Asia, the cat is one of the animals in the 12-year cycle of the Vietnamese zodiac. It does not, however, appear in the Chinese zodiac. Legend holds that the rat, who invited the animals to the Jade Emperor's Palace to be chosen for the zodiac, forgot to invite the cat, so the cat declared the rat its natural enemy.
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All domestic cats no matter what variety, belong to the same species: Felis silvestris. The scientific classification of cats is:
