This article focused mainly on the domestication and uses of the cats by humans. Like the first article it was very precise and right to the point, which is good in an article used for research. Both of these articles had their good points and bad points, and they both were very informative.
The Domestication of the Cat.
Cats were first domesticated by the ancient Egyptians around 3500 B.C. long after the domestication of the first animals. At first they were brought into the home to help fight the rise in the population of the mouse. Since cats were natural hunters they were very useful in the extermination of household pests. After a while they were also wanted for their companionship as well. This also led to the migration of cats over seas. Once people began traveling over seas in ships cats were brought along to rid the ships of vermin as well as the home (3). This would explain how the species is not contained to area. Seeing as how cats are not very comfortable in water we know they did not swim from continent to continent. .
The Egyptians also had a religious reason for bringing the cats into their lives. All the Egyptian gods were represented by some type of animal. For two of their gods this animal was the cat. Ra was the god of the sun. He was depicted by the male cat, and Bast, the fertility goddess, was represented by the female cat. These were two of their most important deities, which go to show just how important the cat was to their everyday life. This makes you think if the Egyptians had not decided to bring this animal into their homes and lives, would we have cats today. I think that if the Egyptians had not done it some farmer down the road would have started the trend of using cats to rid the farm of its vermin. .
The Evolution of the Cat.
It is believed that the modern day domestic cat is a descendent of the larger wild cats. This would place all the cats most people know about like the tiger, lion, jaguar, puma, and friendly house cat into the main genus of cats know as Felius.