How Long Have Cats Been Pets?

Cat

Cats are fun to keep as pets.  They make playful friendly companions.  The cat has been a favorite pet for a long, long time.

Many believe that the Egyptians tamed the first cats more than 4,000 years ago.  The Egyptian cat was one of the small wildcats found in North Africa.

Cats kept rats and mice from overrunning the great Egyptian grain storehouses.  Probably because they did such a good job in destroying these pests, the Egyptian worshipped the cat as a god.  An Egyptian who harmed a cat was punished.

By about the 9^th century, cats were helping to keep farms, shops and houses in Europe mouseless.  But the early Europeans associated cats with witches and evil spirits rather than a god, and many superstitions grew up around cats.   A black cat, for example, was a sign of bad luck.  To many people today,  a cat is just a nice pet to have around. - Dick Rogers