Supporting the theory of Egyptian domestication and African origins is the fact that many of today’s domestic shorthaired cats remarkably resemble the stately Egyptian cats depicted in ancient paintings and sculptures. Likewise, some of their longhaired cousins, with their tufted ears and cheeks, retain the lynxlike look of their wild African ancestor, Felis lybica.
From Gods to Devils
Not all cultures worshipped cats as gods, however, the way the Egyptians did. By the Middle Ages, cats had spread to European nations, transported there no doubt by traders who, realizing their worth, carried specimens back to their homelands for rodent control. The thirteenth century proved to be a bleak time for cats. Along with their human associates accused of witchcraft by the Christian Church, cats became symbols of evil, devil worship, and pagan practices. As a result, they were persecuted, tortured, burned, and killed in the cruelest ways.
The Black Death: In one of the subtle ironies of history, retribution for this unjust sentencing came swiftly in the form of the Black Death, which fell upon western Europe in the mid-1300s and, within approximately four years, wiped out nearly half of the human population there. The Black Death was the bubonic plague, a deadly bacterial infection spread by disease-bearing rodents and the fleas that live off their blood. The bite of an infected flea transmitted the disease from rat to man.
In retrospect, experts have suggested that the deliberate and systematic elimination of cats from the unsanitary streets and crowded towns of Europe during this time may have helped contribute to the rapid spread of bubonic plague. Unaware of the relationship between rats, fleas, and the plague, people caught up in the misguided religious and political fervor of the time effectively reduced the cat population that was helping to keep the rodents under control. In exercising this serious error in judgment, they may have unwittingly tipped the odds in favor of a devastating epidemic.
In time, the Black Death ran its course, but not without incurring profound social changes that would signal the end of the Middle Ages. The persecution of cats eventually ended as well, as people once again came to appreciate their role in reducing rodent populations. At the dawn of a modern age, the domestic cat emerged from one of the darkest chapters in world history to begin a new journey into the heart of humankind.
Cats today: Today, cats are the most popular pets in North America, outnumbering dogs per household by nearly two to one. And while most modern house cats no longer find it necessary to serve primarily as mousers, they continue to enrich our lives as companions and in countless other ways.
Coming to America
While we know that domestic cats were in Europe by the Middle Ages, no one knows for sure exactly when they first arrived in the New World. Cats may have crossed the ocean as early as the Vikings or Columbus, but by the 1600s they were most certainly coming along for the ride with European immigrants aboard sailing ships. The breed lore of the American Shorthair cat even mentions the Mayflower as one possible mode of transport. Such a tale is not implausible, since cats were brought along on long sea voyages in those days to hunt the rats and mice that ate the ship’s food supplies. Owing to this practice, North America’s domestic cats probably are descendants of cats brought from the British Isles and other western European countries.
Upon arrival in the New World, the cats were released to extend their pest-control duties in and around the new farms and colonies being settled. For centuries, these working mousers flourished in the fields and barns of America’s pioneers, allowing natural selection to mold them and multiplying into a durable, diversified lot.
How the Cat Fancy Began
By the late 1800s people had begun to view cats as more than mere mousers. As cat shows and the cat fancy—the collective term used to describe those interested in breeding and showing purebred cats—developed first in England, then spread to America, cats gained popularity as companion animals. People even began importing exotic breeds, such as longhaired and Siamese cats, from abroad. Some of these cats were allowed to run free and mingle with the domestic shorthair stock already flourishing on native soil. As a result, kittens began to appear with varying coat lengths, color patterns, and temperaments, lending even more diversity to the melting pot.
A purebred cat, of course, is bred from members of a recognized breed or its allowable outcrosses and has a recorded ancestry. A non-pedigreed or mixed-breed cat, on the other hand, is generally understood to be the feline equivalent of what canine enthusiasts affectionately refer to as a mutt. While sometimes it may be obvious that one parent was of a specific breed, such as a Siamese, the mixed-breed cat’s ancestry is, in most cases, unknown and unverifiable.
Today, the more politically correct and probably the more accurate term for cats of uncertain ancestry is random bred. Language purists may argue that the term mixed breed more properly means that at least two recognized breeds have been mixed or crossbred—say, a purebred Persian was mated with an American Shorthair, or a Russian Blue was crossed with an Abyssinian to produce offspring. Yet, the more common reference—mixed breed—remains well understood by the general populace to mean a little bit of this and a little dash of that, with who knows what else added for extra flair.
First cat show: With the rise of the cat fancy came the cat shows. Harrison Weir staged the first cat show in 1871 at London’s Crystal Palace. Weir also developed the first breed standards by which cats were judged in those days and served as president of Great Britain’s first national cat club, which issued the first feline stud book in the late 1800s.
The United States was quick to follow Great Britain’s lead, as cat exhibits and judgings have taken place here since the 1870s. But an official all-breed show held in 1895 at New York’s Madison Square Garden marked the real beginning of interest among North American cat fanciers. In 1899 the first and oldest U.S. cat registry, the American Cat Association (ACA), was formed to keep records.
Today, numerous cat-registering associations exist in North America. They include the Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA), the American Cat Fanciers’ Association (ACFA), the International Cat Association (TICA), the Cat Fanciers’ Federation (CFF), the American Association of Cat Enthusiasts (AACE), the National Cat Fanciers’ Association (NCFA), the United Feline Organization (UFO), the Canadian Cat Association (CCA), and the Traditional Cat Association (TCA). Each association has its own show rules and breed standards, but all maintain stud books, register purebred cats, and verify pedigrees. Most of them also charter clubs, sanction shows, and present awards and titles. CFA, incorporated in 1919, is the world’s largest registry of pedigreed cats, sponsoring approximately 400 shows a year across the United States and internationally through its more than 650 member clubs.
While preference is given to purebred cats in the cat show world, most associations sponsor house-
Show Your Cat
Whether you have a purebred or a random-bred household pet that you want to show, you typically must register the cat with the association sanctioning the event. The association uses the registration information to score and track awards. For more information on showing your cat, please see pages 178-187.
hold pet (HHP) categories in which random-bred cats and kittens can compete and earn awards (see page 182). HHP classes existed as early as the mid-1960s, but they were primarily sideshows to the purebred competition, judged