When you notice the adorable child outside the grocery store, with a cardboard box of furry charm is not the best time to make the impulsive choice to adopt a kitten. It is a decision to be thoughtfully considered ahead of time.
Owning a cat means you will have to provide warm and safe shelter, regular, well-balanced meals, and a great deal of care and attention. Is your dwelling a house, apartment, rv, or mobile home, and is a pet deposit required to cover possible damage. Will your cat be strictly indoors, outdoors, in a barn, or a combination of in and out. Is anyone living in the home allergic to cats. Do you have money to dedicate to the care of your cat which will include vaccinations, spay or neutering as well as the ongoing cost of food. A healthy cat can live for over twenty years and will need constant care for all that time. My vet has a Kitten Package that covers all vaccinations, exam, and five percent off the spay or neuter for $240.00. Spay is $124 and neuter is $91 currently. There are also low cost vaccination clinics in most areas.
If your decision is "yes", the rewards will be great. In return for its care and attention a cat will display love for its owner. There are health benefits as well, besides providing companionship, stroking and petting your cat has been shown to lower blood pressure, release frustration and tension.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Happier Days for Cats Begin....
Things started to move in a positive direction for cats at the begining of the 18th century, the change appears to have been influenced by three things. First was a lessening in the belief in witches. Second was the invasion of Europe by the brown (or gray) rat, which replaced the black rat and was more prolific and difficult to control. The brown rat reached Germany in 1753, Sweden in 1762, and Switzerland in 1808. Its multiplication was helped along by increasing urbanization and its distribution facilitated by increasing sea travel. Cats were increasingly valued in urban areas and on shipboard because of their mousing abilities. “Many administrative authorities began to set aside a special budget for the breeding and maintenance of ratting cats in museums, libraries, prisons, barracks, warehouses and stores” (Mery F, The Life, History and Magic of the Cats, London, Paul Hamlyn, 1967, pp. 56, 59). Finally, as Pasteur’s work and microbes became well known, disease became associated with being dirty, and the cat, by virtue of its cleanliness, was increasingly associated with health.
The earliest modern examples of keeping cats as pets occurred in the mid-18th century, first in Paris and later in London, among artists and writers. Cats became associated with intellectuals. By the early 19th century, descriptions can be found of children playing with cats.
Cats began to be used in advertising in the 1850s, and “some cats were seen on paper fans, matchbooks, bookmarkers, and the like” (Lynnlee, p. 28). By the 1870s, interest in cats as pets had become so widespread that writers referred to it as a “cat fever,” “cat cult,” “cat fancy,” or “cat craze,” e.g. “Of late years there has been a rapid and promising growth of what disaffected and alliterative critics call the ‘cat cult,’ and poets and painters vie with on another in celebrating the charms of this long-neglected pet” (Repplier AQ, Agrippina, Atlantic Monthly, 1892;69:760). The first cat show in London took place in the Crystal Palace in 1871; the first show in New York was in Madison Square Garden in 1894.
Let's Find Out More About Cats... (First, a little history)
As The New York Times wrote in 2007, "Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal", a later study in 2007 showed that the historical generation of all house cats is likely to run through as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) c. 8000 BC, in the Near East.
Cats are thought to have self domesticated as they learned to live in close proximity to humans. The arrangement was beneficial to both. Cats seeking food and comfort, humans glad for the hunting skills of cats that kept the mouse population in check.
The earliest direct evidence of cat domestication is a kitten that was buried alongside a human 9,500 years ago in Cyprus.
The major example of cats being kept as pets was in ancient Egypt when, approximately 3,500 years ago (1,500 BCE), a local cult of worshipping a cat goddess (Bastet) became widespread. Cats were highly valued and often mummified when they died. Herodotus noted the Egyptian fondness for cats when he visited in 450 BCE. The Egyptians attempted to restrict the distribution of cats to other countries and prohibited their export.
The Romans are thought to have introduced cats to central and western Europe, including Britain. Cats are thought to have reached India approximately 2,200 years ago (200 BCE) and to have reached China and Japan even later. As trade by shipping became common, cats became essential items on ships to keep the mice, and later rats, under control, and in this manner cats became geographically disseminated. References to cats as companions or pets are rare, and “up until the tenth century the cat is viewed, if not with respect, then with tolerance and as a necessity and asset to the household” (Lynnlee JL, Purrrfection: The Cat, West Chester, Pa., Schiffer, 1990, p. 21)•
Modern History
As the 11th century began, tolerance for cats began to grow less in Europe for religious reasons, and “by the 13th century the church viewed witches as real and cats as instruments of the devil” (Lynnlee, p. 20). Dante (1265–1321), for example, mentioned cats only once in his work and compared them to demons. From the 14th century well into the 18th century, cats were regularly killed on specific religious holidays. “By the late 15th century the persecution of cats and witches was a mainstay of European society. . . . The 15th and 16th centuries are almost devoid of any cat literature and art. . . . During this period the cat still was used to control rodents, but it was rarely seen as a pet, for if so its existence and that of its owner were in jeopardy” (Lynnlee, p. 21). Cats became especially associated with heretical religious sects, such as the Waldensians and Manichaeans, and members of these sects were accused of worshiping the Devil in the form of a black cat.
Cats are thought to have self domesticated as they learned to live in close proximity to humans. The arrangement was beneficial to both. Cats seeking food and comfort, humans glad for the hunting skills of cats that kept the mouse population in check.
The earliest direct evidence of cat domestication is a kitten that was buried alongside a human 9,500 years ago in Cyprus.
The major example of cats being kept as pets was in ancient Egypt when, approximately 3,500 years ago (1,500 BCE), a local cult of worshipping a cat goddess (Bastet) became widespread. Cats were highly valued and often mummified when they died. Herodotus noted the Egyptian fondness for cats when he visited in 450 BCE. The Egyptians attempted to restrict the distribution of cats to other countries and prohibited their export.
The Romans are thought to have introduced cats to central and western Europe, including Britain. Cats are thought to have reached India approximately 2,200 years ago (200 BCE) and to have reached China and Japan even later. As trade by shipping became common, cats became essential items on ships to keep the mice, and later rats, under control, and in this manner cats became geographically disseminated. References to cats as companions or pets are rare, and “up until the tenth century the cat is viewed, if not with respect, then with tolerance and as a necessity and asset to the household” (Lynnlee JL, Purrrfection: The Cat, West Chester, Pa., Schiffer, 1990, p. 21)•
Modern History
As the 11th century began, tolerance for cats began to grow less in Europe for religious reasons, and “by the 13th century the church viewed witches as real and cats as instruments of the devil” (Lynnlee, p. 20). Dante (1265–1321), for example, mentioned cats only once in his work and compared them to demons. From the 14th century well into the 18th century, cats were regularly killed on specific religious holidays. “By the late 15th century the persecution of cats and witches was a mainstay of European society. . . . The 15th and 16th centuries are almost devoid of any cat literature and art. . . . During this period the cat still was used to control rodents, but it was rarely seen as a pet, for if so its existence and that of its owner were in jeopardy” (Lynnlee, p. 21). Cats became especially associated with heretical religious sects, such as the Waldensians and Manichaeans, and members of these sects were accused of worshiping the Devil in the form of a black cat.
On feast days all over Europe, as a symbolic means of driving out the Devil, they were captured and tortured, tossed onto bonfires, set alight and chased through the streets, impaled on spits and roasted alive, burned at the stake, plunged into boiling water,whipped to death, and hurled from the tops of tall buildings, all in an atmosphere of extreme festive merriment. (Serpell JA, The domestication and history of the cat, in Turner DC and Bateson P, eds., The Domestic Cat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988, p. 156).
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| successful hunter |
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| hunted, mistreated and murdered |
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