"Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but would deteriorate the cat." Mark Twain

The relationship between cats and people goes back some 5,00 years. While recent archeological evidence has raised doubts as to whether Egypt was the location of the first domestication of the wild cat it is relatively undisputed that the Ancient Egyptians were the first to embrace the cat on a society wide level.

It is generally believed that this relationship evovled from the mutual benefits that each participant received. The Egyptians being farmers needed to protect their crops and grain stores from rats, mice and other vermin while the cats found a ready food supply in these same vermin attracted by the Egyptian crops. That the cats also killed the poisonous snakes that afflicted the Egyptians was an added bonus. From a human perspective this makes perfect sense, the proverbial win-win scenario. The Egyptians had their lives and crops protected and merely needed to refrain from driving away the goose that laid the golden egg but whether or not an easy meal was reason enough for the wild cats to relinquish part of their autonomy we'll never know, the cats aren't talking. At any rate the bargain was struck and the rest, as they say, is history.

( Pictre from the Museum )