Cats more or less moved themselves in
On the island of Cyprus, archaeologists found a person buried about 9,500 years ago with a cat laid beside them. Cyprus has no native wild cats, so someone brought it there by boat. It is one of the earliest signs of people and cats living together.
Cats probably domesticated themselves. When early farmers began storing grain, the stores drew mice, and the mice drew wild cats. The cats that were least afraid of people got the most food and raised the most kittens. Nobody needed to catch them; they just stayed. The cats of ancient Egypt, and the goddess they were linked with, are on our Egyptian gods page.
The meow is mostly for us
Adult cats hardly ever MEOW at each other. A KITTEN meows to its mother — a whole litter of kittens is called a kindle — and grown cats talk to one another mainly with scent, body language and the occasional hiss or yowl. Living with people, they keep meowing because it works: it gets a door opened or a bowl filled, and each cat learns which sounds work on its own humans.
The PURR is a different puzzle. It comes from muscles in the voice box twitching many times a second, and cats purr when they are content — but also sometimes when they are stressed, hurt or giving birth, which suggests it can be a way of calming themselves.
Why calico cats are almost always female
A CALICO cat has patches of white, black and orange, and a TABBY has stripes, swirls or spots, but neither is a breed; they are coat patterns. The genes for orange and black fur sit on the X chromosome, and a cat needs two X chromosomes to show both colours at once. Females have two X chromosomes and males normally have one, so almost every calico or tortoiseshell cat is a girl. The rare males usually have an extra chromosome.
The MANX, from the Isle of Man, is born with a very short tail or none at all because of a natural mutation. The SPHYNX looks hairless but is covered in a fine down, like a peach. The MAINE COON is one of the biggest breeds, and the RAGDOLL is famous for going limp when picked up.
Whiskers, claws and no sweet tooth
WHISKERS are deeply rooted, touch-sensitive hairs that pick up tiny movements of air and help a cat judge whether it can fit through a gap in the dark. Cats walk on their toes, and their CLAWS slide back into their PAWS when not in use, which keeps them sharp. A cat that falls usually twists round in mid-air to land feet first.
Cats also cannot taste sweetness. They lack a working version of the gene for sweet taste, which makes sense for an animal that eats almost nothing but meat. The rest of the grid holds the PERSIAN, SIAMESE, BENGAL, BURMESE, ABYSSINIAN, BOMBAY, BIRMAN, SAVANNAH and SHORTHAIR, the FELINE family name, and a cat's favourite things: a NAP, a SCRATCH, a MOUSE, a ball of YARN, a COLLAR and a twitching TAIL.