10 Weird Facts About Cats

As with dogs, the domestication of cats was based on mutual benefit. In the earliest days of agriculture, man was forced to deal with an unforeseen consequence: rodents devouring his crop and spoiling his grain. Following voraciously in their footsteps were predators like snakes and owls—and cats. The cats with the friendliest dispositions were eventually welcomed into human settlements, highly valued for their ability to destroy vermin. The house cat was domesticated from the African wildcat approximately 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and has rarely strayed from our side since, worshiped in some cultures as gods and reviled in others as manifestations of the devil himself.