Origin of Domestic Cats

So along comes these smarty-pants scientists to tell us using DNA that the ancestors of our felines that entertain or supervise our homes came from the Middle Eastern wildcat "lybica" 10,000 years or more ago. As humans began to cultivate grain and establish grain bins in the Fertile Crescent, so the theory goes, wildcats ingratiated themselves into human communities to keep down the pest problem.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-sci-cats29jun29,1,2077971.story?track=rss

I toured Longwood Gardens outside of Philadelphia last week, a beautiful botanical garden established by the DuPont fortune. I was charmed to see that they have on their payroll a number of cat employees, who are there to keep pests in check. They seemed unusually content, friendly, and well-fed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longwood_Gardens

Of course Kipling nailed the real reason why cats decided to make humans their pets in "The Cat Who Walked By Himself".

http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/cat.htm

"But the Cat keeps his side of the bargain too. He will kill mice and he will be kind to Babies when he is in the house, just as long as they do not pull his tail too hard. But when he has done that, and between times, and when the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone."