the golden circle

How Long Have Domesticated Cats Been Around?

Did you know that not even a century ago, few cats lived entirely indoors at all? In fact, for more than 10,000 years, cats have lived outdoor lives, sharing the environment with birds and wildlife. Understanding cats’ place in history and human evolution reveals how very recently domestic cats came indoors and how millions of this species—who we call community cats—continue to live healthy lives outdoors today, as all domestic cats are biologically adapted to do.

Origins of the Domestic Cat

Cats began their unique relationship with humans 10,000 to 12,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, the geographic region where some of the earliest developments in human civilization occurred (encompassing modern day parts of West Asia). One such development was agriculture. As people abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and settled permanently to farm the land, stored grain attracted rodents.Taking advantage of this new, abundant food source, Middle Eastern wildcats, or felix silvestris lybica, preyed on the rodents and decided to stick around these early towns, scavenging the garbage that all human societies inevitably producejust as community cats do today.Over thousands of years, a new species of cat eventually evolved that naturally made its home around people: felis catus. Pet, stray, and feral cats (stray and feral cats are community cats) are all this same species, which we call the domestic cat.1

Click here to learn more!