Pets and Animals: That Fertile Crescent - homeland of the domestic cat?

According to detailed genomic studies by an international group of scientists reported in 'Science' [Driscott, CA, Menotti-Raymond, A, et al, 'The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication'. Science, Vol 317, pp 519-523, July 27 2007/www.sciencemag.org], various subspecies of Felis sylvestris (the European wildcat and its relatives) seem to have begun domestication by man - or, more arguably, associated themselves with man and domesticated themselves! - some 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. Tame or domesticated cats then spread around the planet with human assistance; and essentially hang out with us today in enormous numbers (about one cat for every 10 humans in the world).

The report essentially supports what most of us have presumed - intuitively or historically - namely, that ".. cats were domesticated in the Near East, probably coincident with agricultural village development* in the Fertile Crescent".

Likely, when humans started growing, harvesting and storing grain, it attracted rodents, which in turn attracted small predatory cats. The cats soon discovered which side their bread was buttered on, so to speak, and hung around human settlements. The felines and humans tolerated and later benfitted mutually from and befriended one another - perhaps through children playing with kittens; and the rest is prehistory - leading to history seeing a process whereby the domestic cat became integrated into human domestic life, civilization, art, cultural development and even religion.

[* Which led to the evolution of trade and city-based civilization.]