Cats: More than a Broadway show

Bastet (Guillaume Blanchard)

As far as cats and people are concerned, there is literally more than meets the eye.

Jennifer Vlegas of Discovery News writes:  Your cat isn't totally ignoring you – really!  She explains that cats do distinguish their owners from all other humans and orient (move their eyes and ears) towards them.  They can also respond with pupil dilation (a sign of emotional arousal) upon hearing an owner's voice.

Unlike dogs, cats have not been bred for vigorous signs of affection or obedience.  Stoicism, in fact, is the name of the feline game.  Cats learned to be strong silent types in the wild, where signs of cute-and-cozy vulnerability could spell instant death.  That is why a secure domestic cat will vocalize far more than a wary feral one.

Nevertheless, Vlegas reports that cats "usually adore their human caretakers."  Which is only fair - since for the past 10,000 years or so, people have adored their feline companions…

At times, this adoration has even reached the point of worship. In Ancient Egypt, the goddess Bastet became less and less the Sekhmet-type lioness and more and more the domestic-type cat.  Wikipedia tells us that her original warlike traits eventually softened into qualities of "fertility, motherhood, protection, and the benevolent aspects of the sun…"

Cats were so beloved back then that "killing one, even accidentally, incurred the death penalty."  Around 60 B.C., the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus witnessed the brutal mob murder of a Roman who mistakenly killed an Egyptian cat.

Resources

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/your-cat-isnt-totally-ignoring-you-really-6C10463618

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_in_ancient_Egypt

Copyright June 27, 2013 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved