This is a tribute to all the useless cats. The domestic cat (Felis
catus or Felis silvestris catus is a small, usually furry,
domesticated, and carnivorous mammal. It is often called the
housecat when kept as an indoor pet, or simply the cat when there
is no need to distinguish it from other felids and felines. Cats
are often valued by humans for companionship and their ability to
hunt vermin and household pests. Cats are similar in anatomy to the
other felids, with strong, flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp
retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey. Cat
senses fit a crepuscular and predatory ecological niche. Cats can
hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such
as those made by mice and other small animals. They can see in near
darkness. Like most other mammals, cats have poorer color vision
and a better sense of smell than humans. Despite being solitary
hunters, cats are a social species, and cat communication includes
the use of a variety of vocalizations (mewing, purring, trilling,
hissing, growling and grunting) as well as cat pheromones and types
of cat-specific body language. Cats have a rapid breeding rate.
Under controlled breeding, they can be bred and shown as registered
pedigree pets, a hobby known as cat fancy. Failure to control the
breeding of pet cats by neutering, and the abandonment of former
household pets, has resulted in large numbers of feral cats
worldwide, requiring population control. Since cats were cult
animals in ancient Egypt, they were commonly believed to have been
domesticated there, but there may have been instances of
domestication as early as the Neolithic from around 9500 years ago
(7500 BC). A genetic study in 2007 concluded that domestic cats are
descended from African wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) c. 8000
BC, in the Near East. According to Scientific American, cats are
the most popular pet in the world, and are now found in almost
every place where humans live. The word cat was introduced,
together with the domestic animal itself, to the Roman Republic by
the 1st century BC. An alternative word with cognates in many
languages is English puss (pussycat). Attested only from the 16th
century, it may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from Low
German puuskatte, related to Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus,
pusekatt. Similar forms exist in Lithuanian and Irish. The
etymology of this word is unknown, but it may have simply arisen
from a sound used to attract a cat. A group of cats is referred to
as a "clowder" or a "glaring," a male cat is called a "tom" or
"tomcat" (or a "gib," if neutered), an unaltered female is called a
"queen," and a pre-pubescent juvenile is referred to as a "kitten."
Although spayed females have no commonly used name, in some rare
instances immature or spayed females are referred to as a "molly."
The male progenitor of a cat, especially a pedigreed cat, is its
"sire," and its female progenitor is its "dam." While the African
wildcat is the ancestral subspecies from which domestic cats are
descended, and wildcats and domestic cats can completely
interbreed, there are several intermediate stages between domestic
pet and pedigree cats on the one hand and those entirely wild
animals on the other. The semi-feral cat is a mostly outdoor cat
that is not owned by any one individual, but is generally friendly
to people and may be fed by several households. Feral cats are
associated with human habitation areas and may be fed by people or
forage in rubbish, but are typically wary of human interaction
General
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