Alan: Although, the article below informs us that cats are the most popular pet outnumbering dogs three to one worldwide, "the American Pet Products Association (says) 62 percent of U.S. households have a pet. Dogs win in the popularity race, with 39 percent of U.S. households owning at least one dog, compared with 33 percent of U.S. households owning at least one cat.people prefer dogs two to one... Those who define themselves as "dog people" are more extroverted, more agreeable and more conscientious than self-described "cat people." Those who love felines, though, were found to be less traditional, more creative and more neurotic." http://abcnews.go.com/US/dog-people-cat-people-pet-preference/story?id=15883844
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Cats are the world’s most popular pets, outnumbering dogs by as many as three to one. This popularity is undoubtedly helped by the fact that cats are simultaneously affectionate and self-reliant: They need virtually no training; they groom themselves; they can be left alone without pining for their owners, but most nonetheless greet us affectionately when we get home.
In a word, they are convenient.
More stories on cats
Outdoor cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds a year, study says
Pets and feral cats alike pose threat to birds, small mammals; death toll higher than previously thought.
Getting bitten by a cat can cause an infection that leads to surgery
Cats’ mouths are filled with bacteria that can put you in the hospital if you get bitten.
Even so, cats remain aloof and inscrutable. Dogs tend to be open, honest and biddable. Cats, on the other hand, demand we accept them on their terms but never quite reveal what those terms might be.
I’ve studied cats for years and shared my home with quite a few, but I don’t feel that this has taught me very much about what they are really like. But science has begun to provide some answers, especially about their relationship to humans. Why are cats so choosy about their objects of affection? And what does it mean when they hold their tail straight up? Read on.
The cat-human connection
Cats and humans go back a long way. DNA evidence identifies the pet cat’s ancestor as the Arabian wildcat Felis silvestris lybicaand places its origins between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago in the Middle East.
It is likely that the first people to tame wildcats were the Natufians, who inhabited the Levant from about 13,000 to 10,000 years ago and are widely regarded as the inventors of agriculture. As such, they were also the first people to be bedeviled by a new pest: the grain-loving house mouse. Wildcats probably moved in to exploit this new resource. Realizing how useful this was — cats, after all, had no interest in eating grain — people probably encouraged them to hang around.
These were not pet cats as we know them. They would have been more like today’s urban foxes, able to adapt to a human environment while retaining their essential wildness.
Of course, the cat’s other qualities probably did not go unnoticed. Their appealing features, soft fur and ability to learn to become affectionate toward us led to their adoption as pets. Yet cats still have three paws firmly planted in the wild.
In contrast to almost every other domestic animal, cats retain remarkable control over their own lives. Most go where they please and when they please and, crucially, choose their own mates. Unlike dogs, only a small minority of cats has ever been intentionally bred by people. No one has bred cats to guard houses, herd livestock or assist hunters.
Cats can be very affectionate, but they are choosy. This stems from their evolutionary past: Wildcats are largely solitary and regard most other cats as rivals. Domestic cats’ default position on other cats remains one of suspicion, even fear.
However, the demands of domestication — the need to live with other cats, and then the forming of bonds with people — extended cats’ social repertoire.
Social behavior probably started to evolve as soon as cats began to congregate around granaries. Any cat that maintained its antagonism toward other cats would have put itself at a disadvantage when exploiting this resource.
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