Mar. 24, 2008 Monday

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Hunky: .We've been catching up on our ancestral history lately. We recently learned that all domestic cats were derived from the wild species of cat known as Felis Sylvestris (that's right, Sylvester the Cat).

Dorie: ..Sylvester was a wild cat of Northern Africa whom the Egyptians adopted as mousers to protect their storage of grain, back in the pre-pesticide days.

Hunky: .Sylvester was revered and valued by the Egyptians, and the domesticated cat spread throughout the civilized world with the help of Phoenician merchants and Roman soldiers.

Dorie: ..Sylvester mated with the larger European wild cat to produce the housecat we know today. Further-reaching cats produced Siamese, Abyssinian and other species.

Hunky: .A final note: The typical feline could have turned out much differently. There was another, much larger wild cat (large dog size) adopted by the Egyptians, whose mousing ability equaled Sylvester's. But he ate more, so he didn't catch on.

Dorie: ..He was the SUV of domesticated felines.