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Many people today have pets for pleasure and companionship. Nearly any animal
can be a pet, such as hamsters, rabbits, birds, fish, frogs, horses, and even
cats and dogs. Besides being a loving companion, pets serve many other purposes
as in protecting homes, destroying vermin, and providing a means of
transportation.
The elderly and the childless couples can rely on a pet as an emotional
outlet. In addition, pets can be kept for their beauty, rarity, or for the
beautiful sounds that birds can make. Today pets are usually purchased from
breeders, pet shops, or animal shelters rather then individually captured and
tamed. All pets were made domestic, including cats.
Cats are the second most popular pets in the world at this time. Of the
two most popular pets, cats are the easiest to maintain and do not need to be
taken out for exercise. Being small means cats are not big eaters and only have
to eat one or two times a day. Cats can play with string, balls, and anything
that may fascinate them.
On the other hand, cats can be your companion while you sleep, read a book,
or watch television. The life of a cat can be very interesting if you are
willing to spend time with them and learn their personality. Every cat has its
own personality. Cats can live to be 15 years old, and in that time a cat owner
can find that a cat is a man's best friend. The origins of a cat can be very
interesting, considering that the cat first began its life with the early
Egyptians and other cultures.
The domestic cat, the most popular cat of the cat family, is a very laid back
cat, sleeping most of the day. Other types of cats like the tiger, lion, and the
cheetah are some of the fiercest animals in the wild. Looking back in history,
and comparing the earlier cats to modern day cats, we discover that today's cats
do not eat to live, but live to eat. Where did cats come from? Cats were not
around when dinosaurs existed, after they disappeared, hoofed animals evolved
and led to saber-toothed cats (Rutherford 8).
There are many additional subdivisions of cats in the world today.
Pseudaulurus, the first true catlike animal, lived about 20 million years ago
and roamed the forests of Europe and North America hunting for small mammals and
birds (Brown 1147). Eventually, more cats began revealing themselves to the
world and began living a dominant life.
Two animals become similar when they are exposed to the same food sources and
environment conditions (Rutherford 10). Many cats have approximately the same
traits as each other, but the cheetah and the saber-tooths are completely
opposite. The cheetah is the cat furthest from the saber-tooth's in having small
canines to allow for the larger nasal opening that enables it to increase its
air intake during a high speed chase (Tabor 10).
There is not much evidence that shows how far cats date back that we know
about. The earliest known remains of a leopard were found in Siwalik Mountains
of India and date from about 1.5 million years ago (Brown 1148). Saber-toothed
cats were one of the longest existing cats on earth. Some saber-toothed cats
were still around only 13,000 years ago, so they survived as a subfamily for
nearly 34 million years (Tabor 10). Panthers, Lynxes, leopards and other wild
cats existed over 10,000 year ago (Rutherford 11). The transition of cats took
place over a period of 50 million years; longer than any human has been around.
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