When you think about your cat, you may think: companion, friend, pet, fur baby, or even pest control. There’s a comical divide between “cat people” and “dog people” — where dogs are trained and treated like children and cats are often depicted as the troublesome, aloof, wild animal that just strolled in your home one day and does whatever comes to mind. While this may be an unfair picture, this gap in stereotypes is there for a reason: dogs and cats became pets in very different ways. In fact, cats are often referred to as only “semi-domesticated.” How, then, did cats become pets?

Ancient Times

There are records of evidence that cats were companion animals thousands of years ago. The earliest record comes from a cat that was buried with its owner in Cyprus 9,500 years ago. They were clearly beloved and became a goddess in the form of Bastet, who was depicted as a woman with a cat’s head nearly 3,000 years ago. Eventually, there became signs of cats living with humans throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. 

Pest Control

Medieval farmers often used cats to hunt rodents. Cats were still not considered domesticated at this point, however, as these were still purely outdoor barn cats and did not live alongside humans. We now know that the average well-fed house cat kills about 14 small animals a year, while a feral cat who hasn’t been fed by humans will hunt 1,100 small animals a year to survive. So it tracks, then, that these farmers would have incentive to keep cats around, but not to feed them or take them inside. 

Are Cats Domesticated?

What changed to make the jump from feral outdoor rodent exterminator to snuggly indoor lap cat? There are two theories on this: 1. Feral cats were tamed and hand-selected based on which cats were the friendliest (similar to how dogs were domesticated) 2. Feral cats became tolerated, rather than hand-selected by humans and they gradually broke off from their wild ancestors to settle into human villages. It is thought that the second option is most likely since, if the main reason for taming was pest control, ferrets and dogs would have been a more effective and efficient option. 

Since it’s unlikely that cats were hand-selected by friendliness as the way of bringing them into homes to live alongside humans, we can’t confidently say that cats are fully domesticated. It’s because of this, that we often feel that cats are a bit aloof and do whatever they want. They are very much still attuned to their inner predator who prioritizes resources and personal space. But this isn’t the end of the story.

From Litter Boxes to Lap Cats

How did a semi-domesticated predator become your sweet and snuggly lap cat? The game-changer here was in cat litter. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that people started to try having cats indoors, but there wasn’t an ideal way to keep cats solely indoors. Originally, people used ash or newspaper in boxes for litter, but few people appreciated the mess trailed through their home. In 1947, a woman asked her neighbor Edward Lowe for some sand for her cat’s box. Instead, he gave her some absorbent clay granules he brought home from work and cat litter was born! 

Resolving the issue of how to keep cats indoors year-round, people grew to bond more closely and consider pets companions rather than purely pest control. By the mid-90s, cat products became a billion-dollar industry and cats were well-settled in the indoors. We now know so much more about cat behavior and how to help them leave harmoniously with us in a way that brings us closer together. There are even certified cat behavior consultants available around the world to help resolve cat behavior issues and keep cats in homes.