Today, October 29, is National Cat Day and it’s a purrfect day to give extra attention to our feline friends. The day urges pet lovers to adopt from a local shelter and also reminds us that neutering and spaying our furry companions helps reduce the abandoned population.
This day was created in the US by journalist and animal welfare advocate, Colleen Paige, in 2005. Since its inception, it has helped save the lives of more than one million cats.
The Durban and Coast SPCA has a number of cats and kittens looking for a forever home, and today might be the ideal time to offer an abandoned feline some love and attention.
Waiting to meet you is Sylvie, a two-year-old tabby who is a curious little girl and loves to explore. There’s Gucci, a three-year-old, fluffy tortoiseshell who loves to keep up with her beauty naps or to follow you around, and one-year-old Lacey who is a little sweetheart and loves to curl up in a ball where she can have a good view of her surroundings.
Cats have been part of the human family for millennia. Science magazine reports that cat domestication goes back 12 000 years. The process appears to have taken place in the Middle East in an area around Israel, Iraq, and Lebanon. The ancient Egyptians used to worship cats.
But domestication didn’t happen overnight. National Geographic reports that “DNA analysis suggests that cats lived for thousands of years alongside humans before they were domesticated. During that time, their genes have changed little from those of wildcats, apart from picking up one recent tweak: the distinctive stripes and dots of the tabby cat”.
Another study from University of Rome's Claudio Ottoni reveals that ancient sailors would bring cats on board for voyages to help protect food stores by killing rodents. This allowed cats to spread across the world.
The Independent on Saturday