Cats played a large role in ancient Egyptian society. Beginning as a wild, untamed species, cats were useful for keeping down vermin populations in the Egyptians' crops and harvests; through exposure to humans, the cat population became domesticated over time and learned to coexist with the human population. The people inhabiting the area which would later become unified and known as Upper and Lower Egypt had a religion centering around the worship of animals, of which the cat became one.

Originally praised for its aid to humans in controlling vermin and its ability to fight and kill snakes (such as cobras), the domesticated cat slowly became a symbol of grace and poise. The goddess Mafdet, the deification of justice and execution, was a fierce lion-headed goddess. The cat goddess Bast (also known as Bastet) eventually replaced the cult of Mafdet, and Bast's image softened over time and she became the deity representing protection, fertility, and motherhood.

The exaltation of cats in Ancient Egypt most likely began with their contribution to agriculture. Feral cats, or "reed cats", naturally preyed upon the rats and other vermin that would otherwise eat from the royal granaries. They earned their place in towns and cities by killing mice, poisonous snakes and other pests. They were worshiped by the Egyptians and given jewellery in their hieroglyphics.

The two main breeds of cat native to Egypt were the jungle cat Felis chaus and the African wildcat Felis silvestris lybica. The latter of these was domesticated, largely due to its temperament. The jungle cat was not nearly as peaceful, and was probably not especially helpful in the initial phases of domestication.

The African wildcat, the more placid of the two, easily coexisted with the human population who were eager to rid their streets of vermin. In return the cats received protection from humans, in the sense that they would be safe from other predators as long as they remained near human habitats. These two species eventually fused to create a new breed of cat, related to the modern-day Egyptian Mau.

In Cats: The Rise of the Cat, Roger Tabor suggests that the domestication process is due to two possible reasons. Gaining confidence around humans through frequent contact at the granaries, cats began to venture into settlements, attracted by the indigenous bird and vermin population. Breeding within itself, a large population of cats could develop, and would continue on doing so at an exponential rate. Additionally, familiarity with human society was aided by the association of cats with the goddess Bast - Egyptian temple priests would often keep cats at their temple as a representative of the goddess.

Egypt was not always unified; initially, it was a land with many regional tribes and nomes. Many nomes had a totemistic system of religion, centering the worship of an animal as a spiritual symbol. Some peoples would choose a totem animal because of the services it provided, some for admirable qualities, some out of fear. Regardless, when war broke out between peoples, the tribe that won was able to demand more respect for their totem, and mandated its worship. Eventually an empire was formed under Menes circa 3100 BCE, and a more pluralistic form of totemism was established. Ibises, eagles, and beetles were among the totems worshipped alongside cats.

The Egyptians viewed their gods not as simple spirits but as intelligences that could be personified in a body. The earliest evidence of cats as deities comes from a 3100 BCE crystal cup decorated with an image of the lion-headed goddess Mafdet. The goddess Bast was originally depicted as a fiercely protective and warlike lion, but as her image "softened" over time she became more strongly associated with domestic cats.

As cats were sacred to Bast, the practice of mummification was extended to them, and the respect that cats received after death mirrored the respect they were treated with in everyday life. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that in the event of a fire men would guard the fire to make certain that no cats ran into the flame. Herodotus also wrote that when a cat died, the household would go into mourning as if for a human relative, and would often shave their eyebrows to signify their loss.

Although the cat cult was a significant religious movement by the birth of the New Kingdom it gained new importance when Shoshenq I developed Bubastis, chief centre of worship for the goddess Bast, located east of the Nile Delta, into an important city. At the same time, Bast developed into an immensely popular and important deity representing fertility, motherhood, protection and the benevolent aspects of the sun - along with Sekhmet, she was known as the Eye of Ra. The cult of the cat garnered a huge following and thousands of pilgrims journeyed each year to Bubastis to celebrate. Bubastis also became another name by which the goddess was known.

Close to the centre of the city lay a large temple to Bast. This temple was in a depression which sited it at a lower elevation to the rest of the city, which had been raised to minimize flood damage from the nearby. Of this Herodotus, who visited the city in 450 BCE, wrote that although the size of the shrine to Bast was perhaps 'not as large as those of other cities, and probably not as costly, no temple in all of Egypt gave more pleasure to the eye'.

He went on to describe the temple in detail. A canal within this depression gave the temple the appearance of a man-made island. In the courtyard was a grove of trees leading the way to the interior, which contained a massive statue of Bast - and a great number of sacred cats, cared for by the temple priests with donations from pilgrims. The temple's cat population, while respected, was extremely large and needed to be moderated by the periodic sacrificial culling of kittens, which were then mummified and sold to pilgrims as relics.

Bubastis became a marketplace for merchants of all sorts; artisans came forth with thousands of bronze sculptures and amulets depicting cats to worshippers of Bast. These amulets commonly featured an image of a cat and its kittens and were often used by women trying to have children, praying to Bast that they be granted the same number of children as kittens depicted on the amulet.

The famed revelling and commercialism of Bubastis even made its way into Judeo-Christian mythology. In the sixth century BCE, the prophet Ezekiel wrote that "The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth [Bubastis] shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity" (Ezekiel 30:17). God revealed to Ezekiel that He would punish these cities, like Nineveh, for their paganism and sin.

By 525 BCE, Egypt was essentially the only empire not conquered by the Persians. At that point Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, set out to do just that. Cambyses and his army crossed the fifty-six mile stretch of desert to the Egyptian outpost of Pelesium on camelback; they then clashed down upon the Egyptian army who were reluctant to strike back at the sacred symbol of the cat upon the Persian shields.

Herodotus noted that cats who died anywhere in Egypt were often taken to Bubastis to be mummified and buried in the great cemetery, but this may or may not have been the case. At the burial site in Bubastis the Swiss Egyptologist Édouard Naville found more than 20 m³ (720 cubic feet) of cat remains but also a great deal of evidence of cremation. Naville found stacks of cat bones in many pits, the walls of which were made up of bricks and clay. Near each pit lay a furnace, its bricks blackened from fire. This discovery causes some problems. The mummification and preservation of the body was intended to make it possible for the deceased's ka to locate its host and subsequently be reborn into the afterlife. As the body would have to be intact for this process to occur, cremation would seem an undesirable way of dealing with the body of a sacred creature with a ka. Nevertheless, many cats were afforded the full embalming ceremony and buried in other great cemeteries along the Nile.

In her book The Cult of the Cat, Patricia Dale-Green states that, "The cat's body was placed in a linen sheet and carried amidst bitter lamentations by the bereaved to a sacred house where it was treated with drugs and spices by an embalmer". She goes on to state that although the cat of an Egyptian noble would receive more extravagant burial status, the body of a worker's cat would still be carefully prepared and the embalming carried out with the same conscientiousness as for a human body, often with provisions for the afterlife such as pots of milk and even mummified mice.

Nowhere, perhaps, is this appreciation shown more than in the colossal tomb at the temple of Bast discovered in 1888. This tomb, outside of Beni Hasan, held more than nineteen tonnes of animal mummies and remains, the vast majority being cats but a number of mongooses, dogs and foxes were amongst the specimens that made it to the British Museum. The farmer who made the discovery sold most of the tomb's contents to be ground up as fertilizer, but fortunately a number of specimens made it into the hands of scientists for testing and examination. Some of these are on display at the British Museum.

The sole Egyptologist to visit the site, William Martin Conway, wrote: "The plundering of the cemetery was a sight to see, but one had to stand well windward. The village children came [...] and provided themselves with the most attractive mummies they could find. These they took down the river bank to sell for the smallest coin to passing travelers. The path became strewn with mummy cloth and bits of cats' skulls and bones and fur in horrid positions, and the wind blew the fragments about and carried the stink afar". (quoted in Tabor p26).

Neolithic 

The exact history of human interaction with cats is still somewhat vague. However, a gravesite discovered in 1983 in Shillourokambos Cyprus, dating to 7500 BC, during the Neolithic period, contains the skeletons of a ceremonially buried human and a type of young cat. Since cats are not native to Cyprus, this suggests that cats were domesticated (or just tamed) at least this early. The cat found in the Cyprus grave was more similar to the ancestral wildcat species than to modern housecats. Statues from Anatolia created around 6000 BC have also been found depicting women playing with domesticated cats, which implies that cats were domesticated there around the same time period. 

Ancient Egypt 

The earliest written records of attempts to domesticate cats date back to ancient Egypt, circa 4000 BC, where cats were employed to keep mice and rats away from grain stores in order to prevent food poisoning. Ancient Egyptians regarded cats as embodiments of the goddess Bast, also known as Bastet (emphasizing the female -t suffix) or Thet. She was the daughter of the sun god Ra, although she was sometimes regarded as the daughter of Amun. She was the wife of Ptah and mother of the lion-god Mihos. Her cult was centered on her sanctuary at Bubastis in the Nile Delta, where a necropolis has been found containing mummified cats.Recently, deep scans of several mummified felines indicated they had suffered broken necks before mummification. Recent research indicates that cats were so popular in tombs that sometimes other animals would be wrapped up in the form of a mummified cat.It has been speculated that because of circumstantial evidence (which to date is unproved by DNA testing) cats resident in Kenya's Islands in the Lamu Archipelago may be the last living direct descendants of the sacred cats of ancient Egypt. The suggestive evidence is: similar body conformation, archeologically proven history of 1000 years habitation, ancient Red Sea trade between Lamu and Egypt, genetic insular isolation.

Vikings 

Vikings used cats as rat catchers and companions and are sometimes credited with the domestication of the Norwegian Forest Cat, or Skogskatt. The Viking goddess of love, fertility and war, Freyja, was strongly associated with cats, as they were considered her sacred animals. She was often portrayed in a chariot drawn by two horse-sized winged cats. Kittens were often given in her name to brides, linking together Freya's influence over both cats and romance.According to Norse legend, Gleipnir (the fine ribbon used to bind Fenrir) was crafted by dwarfs from, among other items, the sound a cat makes when walking.

Middle Ages 

In the Middle Ages, cats were often thought to be witches' familiars (for example, Greymalkin, the first witch's familiar in Macbeth's famous opening scene), and during festivities were sometimes burnt alive or thrown off tall buildings.A medieval King of Wales, Hywel Dda (the Good) passed legislation making it illegal to kill or harm a cat. Other cultures of the time considered them evil, unlucky, or the consorts of witches.The human killing of cats in the Middle Ages has also been cited as one of the reasons for the spread of bubonic plague - the Black Death, which was spread by the increased rodent population caused by the death of so many cats. 

Europe 

Folklore dating back to as early as 1607 tells that a cat will suffocate a newborn infant by putting its nose to the child's mouth, sucking the breath out of the infant. A jury in England once found that a child had died from a cat sucking the breath out of him: this conclusion was probably reached because of the widespread acceptance of the tale. Many explanations are given to attempt to support it, the most common of which is jealousy from the cat towards the infant, as a result of the level of attention that the infant receives. Another explanation advanced is that the smell of milk from the infant's mouth attracts the cat to do so. However, it has been shown that, unless the cat is raised on milk, the cat prefers water. 

Japan 

In Japan, there is the Maneki Neko, also referred to in English as the "good fortune" or "good luck" cat. It is usually a sitting cat with paw raised and bent. Legend in Japan has it that a cat waved at a Japanese landlord, who was intrigued by this gesture and went towards it. A few seconds later a lightning bolt struck where the landlord had been previously standing. The landlord attributed his good fortune to the cat's fortuitous action. A symbol of good luck hence, it is most often seen in businesses to draw in money. In Japan, the flapping of the hand is a "come here" gesture, so the cat is beckoning customers.Another Japanese Legend with cats is from Nekomata, when a cat has 10 years of life, it grows another tail and can stand up and talk Human Speech.

Modern times 

Today some people still believe that black cats are unlucky or that it is unlucky if a black cat crosses one's path, while others believe that black cats are lucky. Black cats in particular are associated with Halloween festivities. Because of this, many cat rescue groups will not adopt out black cats during the month of October because they are concerned that the prospective owners are only going along with the season and, as a result, will not make a lifelong dedication to the pet. They are also afraid that the prospective owners will do away with the cat because of its alleged unluckiness. Some animal shelters will not adopt out cats of any kind (or sometimes pets in general) around Halloween because they are afraid, as a result of the moral panic claims of believers in Satanic ritual abuse, that the animals will be sacrificed. A far more plausible fear is that they may be used in Halloween-oriented pranks which could hurt or kill them.It is common lore that cats have nine lives. It is a tribute to their perceived durability, their occasional apparent lack of instinct for self-preservation, and their seeming ability to survive falls that would be fatal to other animals. 

Cats also possess rather loose skin; this allows them to turn and confront a predator or another cat in a fight, even when it has a grip on them. This is also an advantage for veterinary purposes, as it simplifies injections. In fact, the life of cats with kidney failure can sometimes be extended for years by the regular injection of large volumes of fluid subcutaneously, which serves as an alternative to dialysis.

The particularly loose skin at the back of the neck is known as the scruff, and is the area by which a mother cat grips her kittens to carry them. As a result, cats tend to become quiet and passive when gripped there. This tendency often extends into adulthood, and can be useful when attempting to treat or move an uncooperative cat. However, since an adult cat is heavier than a kitten, a pet cat should never be carried by the scruff, but should instead have their weight supported at the rump and hind legs, and at the chest and front paws. Often (much like a small child) a cat will lie with its head and front paws over a person's shoulder, and its back legs and rump supported under the person's arm.

Cats have 7 cervical vertebrae like almost all mammals, 13 thoracic vertebrae (humans have 12), 7 lumbar vertebrae (humans have 5), 3 sacral vertebrae like most mammals (humans have 5 because of their bipedal posture), and, except for Manx cats, 22 or 23 caudal vertebrae (humans have 3 to 5, fused into an internal coccyx). The extra lumbar and thoracic vertebrae account for the cat's enhanced spinal mobility and flexibility, compared with humans. The caudal vertebrae form the tail, used by the cat as a counterbalance to the body during quick movements. Cats also do not possess a clavicle, which allows them to pass their body through any space into which they can fit their head.

Cats have highly specialized teeth and a digestive tract suitable for the digestion of meat. The premolar and first molar together compose the carnassial pair on each side of the mouth, which efficiently functions to shear meat like a pair of scissors. While this is present in dogs, it is highly developed in felines. The cat's tongue has sharp spines, or papillae, useful for retaining and ripping flesh from a carcass. These papillae are small backward-facing hooks that contain keratin which also assist in their grooming.

Ears

Thirty-two individual muscles in each ear allow for a manner of directional hearing: the cat can move each ear independently of the other. Because of this mobility, a cat can move its body in one direction and point its ears in another direction. Most cats have straight ears pointing upward. Unlike dogs, flap-eared breeds are extremely rare. (Scottish Folds are one such exceptional genetic mutation.) When angry or frightened, a cat will lay back its ears, to accompany the growling or hissing sounds it makes. Cats also turn their ears back when they are playing, or to listen to a sound coming from behind them. The angle of a cat's ears is an important clue to their mood.

Legs

Cats, like dogs, are digitigrades: they walk directly on their toes, the bones of their feet making up the lower part of the visible leg. Cats are capable of walking very precisely, because like all felines they directly register; that is, they place each hind paw (almost) directly in the print of the corresponding forepaw, minimizing noise and visible tracks. This also provides sure footing for their hind paws when they navigate rough terrain.

Unlike dogs and most mammals, cats walk by moving both legs on one side and then both legs on the other. Most mammals move legs on alternate sides in sequence. Cats share this unusual gait with camels, giraffes, some horses ('pacers'), and a select few other mammals. There is no known connection between these animals which might explain this.

Like all members of family Felidae except the cheetah, cats have retractable claws. In their normal, relaxed position the claws are sheathed with the skin and fur around the toe pads. This keeps the claws sharp by preventing wear from contact with the ground and allows the silent stalking of prey. The claws on the forefeet are typically sharper than those on the hind feet. Cats can extend their claws voluntarily on one or more paws at will. They may extend their claws in hunting or self-defense, climbing, "kneading", or for extra traction on soft surfaces (bedspreads, thick rugs, etc.). It is also possible to make a cooperative cat extend its claws by carefully pressing both the top and bottom of the paw. The curved claws may become entangled in carpet or thick fabric, which may cause injury if the cat is unable to free itself.

Most cats have five claws on their front paws, and four or five on their rear paws. Because of an ancient mutation, however, domestic cats are prone to polydactyly, and may have six or seven toes. The fifth front claw (the dewclaw) is in a more proximal position than those of the other claws. More proximally, there is a protrusion which appears to be a sixth "finger". This special feature of the front paws, on the inside of the wrists, is the carpal pad, also found on the paws of big cats and dogs. It has no function in normal walking, but is thought to be an anti-skidding device used while jumping.

Senses