The cat family is very large, ranging from the large tiger and lion to the domestic cat, they are all related. I wondered if a cat had always lived next to a person.

From the Animals Encyclopedia, I learned that the cat was domesticated after the dog, horse and cattle. But even tamed, she retained her independent character. In the house she can be sweet and affectionate, but when she leaves the threshold she becomes a ruthless predator.

I really liked one Indian legend about the taming of a cat by man. Here it is: In the old days, a cat lived in the forest with her brother, the tiger. But the tiger fell ill, and the cat went to the people to take fire from them and warm his cold brother. Entering human habitation, she found comfort and warmth there, and most importantly, delicious food. Taking the firebrand, the cat returned to the tiger in the forest, and when the tiger was already warming itself by the fire, the cat declared that she was tired of enduring hunger and cold in the forest and was going to live with people. So, according to legend, the cat became a domestic cat.

It is impossible to completely restore the history of the origin of domestic cats. Already at the sites of ancient cave dwellers, the remains of ancient cats were discovered, which differed little from modern ones. They were used then, as now, to protect their supplies from rodents.

Most likely, the modern domestic cat descended from the Libyan wild cat, domesticated in ancient Egypt around 3500 BC. e. for protecting grain in storage facilities from rodents. However, the cat was probably first domesticated ca. 6000 BC e. in Cyprus.

In Ancient Egypt, the cat was revered as a sacred animal, the killing of which was punishable by death. Nowadays, the cat is one of the most famous pets. The number of cats living among people is almost impossible to count, if we consider the domestic cat and those semi-wild street cats that live and protect cities from the invasion of rats and mice.

According to other data, there are about 300 million domestic cats and about 100 million. their homeless relatives.

It is cats that contain the population of rats, which would gladly pour into the streets of our cities.

The Persian is one of the oldest and still the most popular cat breeds, but its exact origin is still unclear. According to one theory, the roots of Persian cats go back to Persia (modern Iran). It was there that the Italian aristocrat and traveler Pietro Della Valle discovered unknown long-haired cats. At that time, he sent a couple of these graceful animals to Italy for breeding. But their further fate remained unknown. After some time, the French scientist and politician Nicole Claude Farbi de Peires, a contemporary of Pietro Dela Vale, who corresponded with him, became interested in cats then unknown in Europe, and brought several long-haired cats from Ankara (Turkey) to France. Most likely, these were representatives of the Turkish Angora. The scientist’s hobby was joined by his friend and patron, Cardinal de Richelieu, who became one of the first breeders of Angora cats. Naturally, having such influential patrons, Angora quickly gained popularity at the French royal court from the beginning of the 17th century.

In 1766, in Natural History, authored by Francois-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon, two varieties of long-haired cats were described. The images of cats on the canvases of those times are also different. This gives us a chance to assume that not only the Turkish Angora was brought from the East, but also another, different variety of the eastern longhaired cat, which later became the ancestor of the Persian cat. Subsequently, long-haired cats exported from France to other countries were often called “French” rather than Oriental Angora or Persian. But despite this, they were all imported to Europe at the beginning of the 17th century, from Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.

At the same time, there is a version that refutes the original eastern origin of Persian cats. Its essence is that the most likely homeland of owners of long hair should be considered Russia, from where the owner of long hair could be taken to the East. And only then, at the end of the 16th century, the long-haired cat came to Italy, then to France. Where it also became “French” and so on.

And yet these and other existing versions are only assumptions. In fact, the history of the origin of the Persian cat remains a mystery to this day.

Description of the breed. Over many years of selection, a characteristic type of Persian cat has been developed that cannot be confused with anyone else. Their body is stocky and dense, their legs are short and thick. The head is wide, round, massive. The nose is short and snub. The coat is long and thick, silky to the touch, with a fluffy collar at the head. It comes in a wide variety of colors: cream, white, blue, red, tortoiseshell, striped, etc.

My cat has a blue coat, the length of the hairs reaches 13 cm. The dimensions of the cat are: height when he stands on four legs - 26 cm, length from head to tip of tail - 65 cm.

Smell. Cats have an excellent sense of smell, which manifests itself when cats communicate with each other, when males mark their territory. The smell of valerian is known to attract cats, so if necessary, they can be easily caught using this product.

Grisha loves meat very much. When mom defrosts it, the cat smells the meat and does not leave the kitchen until he is allowed to eat it.

Touch. Cats have an amazing sense of touch. They love to be stroked along the fur and seek this caress themselves, but if you stroke them against the grain, both claws and teeth will be used.

I conducted a small experiment: I stroked the cat behind the ear and he began to purr, then I stroked him against the grain - he immediately stopped purring, got up and left. This behavior of Grisha proves that all the hairs covering his body are very sensitive to touch.

The hairs located on the paws allow cats to navigate in space and not run into various obstacles. Many have seen a cat shaking its paw after stepping on water or mud.

Sense of balance. How deftly the cat walks along window sills, railings, tree branches, fences! She is helped in this by a sense of balance, the organ of which is located in the inner ear. If a cat falls, it can adjust its body position so that it lands on its paws. Our pets inherited this ability from their ancestors.

Vision. Cats have special vision – binocular. The eyes are large and unblinking. To look at what interests, the cat turns its head. The eyes are designed in such a way that they can refract a light beam emanating from any source at night. Everyone has seen how a cat's eyes glow in the dark.

Cats see stationary or close objects worse. If they do not notice the place where the toy silently fell, it will be difficult for them to find it, and when searching for food lying under their nose, they rely more on their sense of smell.

In bright light, the iris of the eye narrows, leaving only a thin slit, the flow of light through the lens decreases, and as a result the cat sees poorly.

Twilight gives a cat great benefits. The iris of the eye opens until the pupil becomes completely round, letting in the maximum amount of light. This allows her to see in the dark. Therefore, my cat often starts playing when we turn off the lights and go to bed.

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