Persian

The cat (also called domestic cat, or house cat) is a small feline carnivorous
mammal that has been domesticated for several millennia. Its scientific name is
Felis silvestris catus or Felis silvestris domesticus.

A male cat is
usually called a tom cat, a female cat is called a queen. A young cat is called
a kitten (as are baby rats, rabbits, hedgehogs and squirrels). A cat whose
ancestry is officially registered is called a purebred cat, a pedigreed cat or a
show cat. The owners and breeders of show cats compete to see who can breed the
cat with the closest resemblance to the “ideal” definition of the breed (see
selective breeding). Less than one percent of the total feline population are
purebred cats—the remaining 99% have mixed ancestry and are generally known in
the UK as moggies, or more properly domestic longhairs and domestic
shorthairs.

Cats (including domesticated cats) have a scent organ in the
roof of their mouths called the vomeronasal, or Jacobson’s organ. When a cat
wrinkles its muzzle, raises its chin, and lets its tongue hang a bit, it is
opening the passage to the vomeronasal. This is called the Flehmen
response.

Cats have excellent nocturnal and diurnal vision; an organ
called the tapetum lucidum is responsible for their strong low-light vision, as
well as for the varied colours of cats’ eyes in flash photographs. As with most
carnivores their eyes are both forward facing affording depth perception at the
expense of field of view. Cats are weakly trichromatic.

Cats have a third
eyelid, which is a thin cover that appears when you open the cat’s eyelid. This
is called the nictitating membrane. If a cat is sick, this membrane will
partially close. This is a sign that the cat needs immediate veterinary
attention. Sometimes, however, if your cat is very sleepy and happy, they will
show this membrane.

The sound a cat makes is written “meow” in American
English, “miaow” in British English and various other ways in other languages.
Cats can also produce a purring noise that is immensely pleasurable to many
humans. Some cats growl or hiss when they see other cats on their
territory.

Virtually all cats have straight upward ears. Unlike dogs,
flap-eared breeds are very rare. Scottish Folds is one such exceptional genetic
mutation.

[edit]
History and mythology
The earliest written records
of cat domestication date to ancient Egypt circa 4000 BC, to keep mice and rats
away from their grain stores. However, a recently discovered gravesite in
Shillourokambos, Cyprus, dating to 7500 BC contains the skeletons of a
ceremonially buried human and a young cat, although cats are not native to
Cyprus. This is thought to indicate that cats were domesticated (or perhaps just
tamed) at least this early. [1]
(http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2004/0408cats.shtml)[2]
(http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/04/08/sci-tech/cat_tomb040408) The cat found in
the Cyprus grave was more similar to the ancestral wildcat species than to
modern housecats.

Ancient Egyptians regarded cats as embodiments of the
goddess Bast, also known as Bastet or Thet; the penalty for killing a cat was
death, and when a cat died it was sometimes mummified in the same way as a
human. In the Middle Ages, though, cats were often thought to be witches’
familiars, and during festivities were sometimes burnt alive or thrown off tall
buildings. Today some people believe that white cats are unlucky, or that it is
unlucky if a black cat crosses your path, but others believe that black cats are
lucky.

The cat is one of the 12-year cycle of animals in the Vietnamese
zodiac. It does not, however, appear in the Chinese zodiac. Legend states 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.

[edit]
Domestication
Cats are kept for companionship as
pets, and to hunt mice and rats. Farms often have dozens of cats, living
semi-wild in the barns. Hunting in the barns and the fields, they kill and eat
rodents that would otherwise eat large parts of the grain crop. (Many pet cats
successfully hunt and kill mice, birds and fish by instinct, but might not eat
their prey). Feral cats may live alone or in large groups called colonies with
communal nurseries, depending on resource availability.

Like many other
domesticated animals, cats lived in a mutualistic arrangement with humans. The
benefit of removing rats and mice from humans’ food stores outweighed the cost
of allowing a formerly-wild animal to enjoy the relative safety of a human
settlement; hence, the relationship between cat and human has continued.
However, unlike other domesticated species, housecats’ ancestors did not hunt
socially or enjoy the safety of a herd, as other domesticated animals did. This
evolutionary history may be the reason cats do not “understand” the desires of
humans in the same way that dogs do; before humans, cats had fewer social
relationships to benefit from. This may also contribute to a sense common among
pet owners that cats are both more aloof and more self-sufficient than other
pets. However, cats can be very affectionate towards their humans, especially if
they imprint on them at a very young age and are treated with consistent
affection.

Some environmentalists claim that the domestication of cats is
of harm to the environment. The reason they state is that due to feeding from
humans, cats have reached population levels that are impossible for any natural
carnivore. This is believed to result in the overhunting of many small animals
in populated areas, possibly hurting the food chain.

For more information
on the care of domestic cats, see How to choose your pet and take care of it,
which has a section on cats.

[edit]
Varieties of domestic
cat

Typical domestic shorthair[edit]
Breeds
The list of cat breeds
lists the many cat breeds. Each breed has distinct features and heritage. Due to
common cross-breeding in populated areas, many cats are simply identified as
belonging to the homogeneous breeds of domestic longhair and domestic shorthair,
depending on their type of fur.

[edit]
Variety
Cats come in a
variety of colors and patterns. However, these colors and patterns are physical
properties and should not be confused with a breed of cat. Calico is white with
distinct black or red (or blue and cream in the dilute variant) spots. The
Japanese refer to this pattern as mi-ke. Tortoiseshell pattern is black with red
and white mottled throughout the coat. The dilute of this pattern is referred to
as blue-cream. Bicolor cats are partly white with areas of color. A tabby cat is
a striped cat. The tabby pattern has a variety of patterns. The classic pattern
is the most common and consists of butterflies and bullseyes. The mackeral tabby
is a series of vertical stripes down the cat’s side (resembling the fish). This
pattern broken into spots is referred to as spotted tabby. (See also cat coat
genetics).

Household cats are grouped into a smaller number of types
according to basic physical appearance:

domestic longhaired cat

domestic shorthaired cat
Oriental cat (not a specific breed, but any cat
with an elongated slender build, almond-shaped eyes, large ears and very short
sleek fur)
Some of the basic feline coloration patterns also have
names:

Maltese cat
Tabby cat
Tortoiseshell cat (also known as
‘calico cat’ or ‘torty’)
Tuxedo cat or ‘Jellicle cat’

The speed of
spread of the Black Death in the 14th century had many people (religion being
the way of life) believing that the Devil was in some way responsible for the
disease. This thought lead the Pope to declare that cats, who were known to roam
freely, were in league with the devil. This declaration was aided by the belief
that cats often acted as Witches’ familiars. Because of the declaration, a great
many cats were killed in the very religious Europe. The sudden decrease in cats
lead to a massive increase in rats – and the plague-carrying fleas that fed upon
them.