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Cats back when they had a useful purpose
About 10,000 years ago all cats were wild.
Then one of them crept into a Near East village that was raising wheat and barley. Those grains attract rodents, which are even less useful than cats. The cat began eating mice and rats, thereby protecting the grain, and the people began domesticating the cat. Such is the contention of Carlos A. Driscoll of the National Cancer Institute who spent six years tracking down down where domestic cats came from, a New York Times story says. As evolution continued, the world is left with a half billion house cats and 36 varieties of wild cats, which are now threatened with extinction. I want to go on record saying I do not favor extinction of house cats, except in my neighborhood, notwithstanding our nearly worthless cat. Posted by Steve E. Swenson 12 comments from 8 users
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posted by
baketown
on Jun 29, 2007 at 11:48 AM
Any word on why a man from the Cancer Institute would spend 6 years tracing cat DNA?
posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 29, 2007 at 11:51 AM
LOL Steve..you just cracked me up.
posted by
OldBlue56
on Jun 29, 2007 at 12:47 PM
Steve, if a cat was chasing a duck across the lanes of the Truxtun Extension, and the cat was dead in your sights, would you brake?
posted by
on Jun 29, 2007 at 12:56 PM
Thats not nice..it could be someone's beloved pet right?
posted by
steveeswenson
on Jun 29, 2007 at 02:19 PM
How is the nine lives theory going to be tested if I make it easy for him?
posted by
sagefever
on Jun 29, 2007 at 02:41 PM
lol I can tell you this about kitties,about 1975 my cat ,a tabby, mated with a Siamese resulting in some beautiful tawny~silver striped kitties.I kept one.It died after a long and happy life.Guess whats on my front porch chair right now acting like it's old home week? you got it a "relative" of my original breeding experiment looking exactly like the first kittens.You don't need to run 'em over folks..they do have 9 lives and 900 generations..where's those chicken legs,gotta go feed the relatives lol
posted by
bakoblue
on Jun 29, 2007 at 04:31 PM
I've got to say that it bugs me a little that so often when the topic of cats comes up on the blogs, someone inevitably starts making jokes about killing them. Why is it o.k. to joke about killing cats? Obviously, I'm a little biased (just take a look at the pic) but I honestly don't get it. posted by
OldBlue56
on Jun 29, 2007 at 04:38 PM
It's only humor bakoblue. Geez.....
posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 29, 2007 at 04:44 PM
Some of us don't joke about hitting cats..its especially not funny when I just had a cat get hit. I just hope the nimrod learned her lesson and stays on my side of the street. I foster abandoned and feral kittens, so I hate to put all my love and effort into them to see them get whacked by a car. I realize it's not the drivers fault and the one that hit my Pumpkin actually tried to avoid her and then stopped to make sure she was ok. I really appreciated that from him. I live in Oildale and have seen drivers AIM for them as they cross the street. Also, I neuter and spay all my kittens/cats..I have some that need homes and they are box trained..any takers??? I have a male and female kitten right now..come on..help a fellow blogger out ya'all.. :) posted by
adampayne
on Jun 29, 2007 at 04:46 PM
Here is a brief excerpt from Smithsonian.com explaining why we study cats. It also may explain why they truly have minds of their own.Happening CatsStudying feline genes has paid off in unlikely ways, boosting aids research and even criminal forensicsBy Stephen Budiansky
But perhaps the most unexpected genome sweepstakes so far is the probe of the house cat. The impetus for the work is an underappreciated genetic similarity between people and cats. Not that it’s in our nature to chase mice or purr when scratched behind the ears, but scientists have found that when it comes to the arrangement of genes on our chromosomes, we’re closer to cats than to any other animal group studied so far except primates. That turns out to be useful. Parallels between human and cat genes may lead to new understandings of and treatments for diseases and may also shed light on some of the steps that evolution has taken to shape the two species in the 90 million or so years since cats, people and other mammals had a common ancestor. And cat genetics have already proved valuable in another, unexpected way: helping to solve a murder case. posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 29, 2007 at 04:51 PM
wow..thanks for that Adam! I had no idea...and it answers Baketown's question :)
posted by
samheath
on Jun 30, 2007 at 08:23 AM
No one who appreciates Garfield is going to minimize the importance of pussycats in the scheme of things. Fact is, as my buddy and I suspect they just may be furry space aliens. Why else would they purr? The present resident cat shows marked intelligence in her eyes and definitely has a mind of her own, as anyone who appreciates the critters will testify.
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