How We Domesticated Cats (Twice)

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How cat domestication happened Caveman: i found this weird small sabertooth its mine now ive named him bringles

"Here kitty kitty" --Your ancestors 10,000 years ago

I cried when he said there was evidence the cat was taken care of by its human due to the healing in their bones 😭

2 ways to survive in this world. 1. Be the smartest creature 2. Be the creature that enslaves the smartest creature.

“To this day we still don’t know how we domesticated cat’s” Caveman: Ayo, pspspspsps....

Cats show us a ton of respect: they don't kill us while we sleep. And they even wake us up several times per night to demonstrate how they aren't killing us.

When talking about domestication of cats (or dogs), people always forget the companionship/affection factor. Most people know what its like to feel hungry. They see a skinny stray one day and their empathy kicks in, they throw it some scraps. Cat learns to come around for food, familiarity breeds some mild affection... then one day mr ancient man is having a bad day sitting there feeling down, maybe got in a fight with the cavewoman bc he didnt throw the elk carcass away after dinner which turned into an argument about how he never takes out the carcasses AND leaves his bloody spears everywhere, doesnt even wipe them down... So hes sitting there feeling down, and this cute fluffy thing rubs against his legs and meows, and for the first time, instead of just throwing it food, he reaches down and touches it... it likes being pet, he feels his mood lift a little, and a friendship is born :)

On the beginning of pandemic me and my partner moved out to countryside. And there was a feral cat, hunting rats, mouses etc. We started to feed him and slowly build trust. I took him over a year to allow us to stroke him. 3 years later he will still go to hunt, but. He wants to be cuddle so much by us. He feels 100% safe with us. His first humans :)

Meanwhile, cats are debating whether they have fully domesticated humans.

Cat: mew Humans: so anyway I adopted it.

my 2 cats were strays from the same litter, 15 happy years with them, i lost one of them a few days ago but i’m grateful for 10,000 years of domestication to have had the ability to meet her

In our folktales, cats are believed to be the tiger's aunt (father's sister), she was asked to fetch fire from the humans. But when she reaches the human house, she tasted burnt rice (that sticks to the bottom of a pan) and sweet potato baked in ash ( under the fire). She wanted more and more of it and never went back to the forest. And hence settled with humans.

The cat died so its human companion was buried with it

“In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.” - Terry Pratchett

3:43 - "For thousands of years they stayed close to human dwellings for food but weren't necessarily close to the people themselves..." Some things don't change

I love that house cats are great companions who still maintain some of their wild ancestry. There are times when my cat shows his wild side, especially at dawn and dusk, and it's always so fascinating to watch.

The greatest scam cats ever pulled on us was domestication and we fell for it TWICE.

Cats were considered part of the family in ancient Egypt. When the family cat died, the family went into mourning just as if a human member had died. Wealthy families even mummified their cats. Several sizable cat cemetaries even existed. Killing a cat was a capital offense.

Yeah I still miss the stray cats in my college campus. Some of the dorm buildings are infested with mice and after the stray cats settled down near the door step, mice just puff, disappeared. And it’s funny how some of these stray mama cats know the way to get free nannies. They just put every single kitten on the doorstep and see to it that some students sit down to look after and play with them. And then they were like: “Imma gonna go hunting mice. Take care of my babies, human.” It works every single time.