LUCKY GARVIN: Cats and Evolution – Or the Lack Thereof

Lucky Garvin
Lucky Garvin

Ten thousand years ago, on the island of Cyprus, a burial was performed. Within were placed two bodies; one most distinctly human, the other most distinctly not. This was a shared grave.

Human beings have been burying their dead since the days of Neanderthal 100,000 years ago. Although traditions, practices and customs vary over time and among peoples, the shared grave is special in that the sites not only contain the bodies of the dead, they commemorate the relationship the two shared in life: parent-child, a married couple, etc.

This burial site will not see sunlight again until the year 2007 when the two bodies are disinterred as part of an archeological dig. Experts will tell us, yes, this creature shares a striking genomic similarity to our cat; similar, but not identical. This animal will be identified as an African Wildcat, [still in existence today] quite possibly domesticated before cats as we know them ever existed.

It has long been settled doctrine that cats were the first of their species to be domesticated. But I now have my doubts. I feel it quite possible that the African Wildcat domestication may well have preceded that of the animals we now know as ‘housecats.’

There were no cats indigenous to Cyprus prior to the 10th Century B.C. It has been asserted by geneticists that early inhabitants of this island were immigrant farmers from Turkey and Syria forty miles across the sea. Presumably, as they wished to establish farming communities, they bought their flocks – their livestock – with them.

From the findings above, we may conclude they also bought African Wildcats. Now, a farmer would be out of his agrarian mind to bring an animal which would prey on his animals, thus we must conclude the wildcats to have been either tamed or domesticated. [‘Domestication’ refers to a species; ‘tamed’ refers to a small number of individuals within that species.]

We don’t know much about the day to day life of pre-historic cats; there was no such thing as ‘writing.’ What we do know is: where-ever the first cats originated – Iran, The Fertile Crescent, China, or Israel, [or all of the above; or none of the above] – they spread out to virtually all countries of Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. When they got to Egypt, cats hit the mother lode. Cats became gods!

Now, from the cats’ point of view, this upward re-assignment in social status was not at all far-fetched. Scrolls recently unearthed in Egypt, quote one cat as saying [and this is only a rough translation] “It’s about bloody time!!” From that time until this, cats have viewed the Egyptian people as having more common sense than the rest of the human race put together.

Alas, it didn’t last long – a mere three thousand years – whereupon cats were demoted to the rank of ‘house pets’. This was a humiliation cats have neither forgotten nor forgiven. So, if your cat seems grouchy occasionally, it means he’s having an Egyptian flash-back.

But, in my reading, I was struck by a conundrum. Perhaps you can shed some light on it. If we consider the wolf-dog to have emerged 45,000 years ago, think of what tasks he performed for his ‘owners’: hunting dog, watch dog, and guard dog. Now, let’s fast-forward to the present day. What do dogs do for us now? [A better question might be: What don’t dogs do for us today?] K-9’s, service dogs, dogs that can smell live bodies, dead bodies, contraband, drugs, explosives, etc, etc. It is quite breath-taking to realize that in a mere two to three decades, dogs have mastered an impressive number of skill-sets!

Now consider cat evolution. Back we go 10,000 years; first cat, and you the first cat owner. What does your cat do for you? He chases mice, sleeps on your lap, and spends the rest of his time ignoring you.

What do cats do today? Mice… lap… ignore. To summarize: in 10,000 years, cats have not budged an inch!

I woke up one of my cats yesterday and asked him about this dichotomy. He said, “Further evolution is completely unnecessary once a species has attained perfection!”  So, I guess that’s the answer to my question…

Lucky Garvin

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