Total Cat Mojo

by Jackson Galaxy

  Even today, superstition and stigma continues to color folks’ perceptions of cats. We’ve all heard “Don’t let a black cat cross your path,” or that cats can “steal a baby’s breath.” And even though cats are more popular than ever, we still kill them in mass numbers in shelters every year, and there has even been a widespread call to eradicate feral cats from the outdoors. Hopefully, these ideologies will soon become part of our past as well.

  From Big to Small

  11 million years ago (mya)—The family Felidae split into the two categories of existing cat species, the Pantherinae (seven species of big cats: tigers, lions, jaguars, and four species of leopards) and the Felinae, which is mostly small cats, including the ones who live in our homes. (For perspective, humans split from our closest relatives much later, between 5 and 7 million years ago!)

  9.4 mya—The first bay cats (Catopuma) form a separate lineage from the ancestors of all the remaining members of the Felinae subfamily.

  8.5 mya—The Caracal lineage (servals [Serval], caracals [Leptailurus], African golden cats) diverges.

  8 mya—The Ocelot lineage (ocelot, margay, pampas [Leopardus], Geoffroy’s cats) diverges.

  7.2 mya—The Lynx lineage (lynx and bobcat [Lynx]) diverges.

  6.7 mya—The Cheetah lineage (pumas and cheetahs [Acinonyx]) splits off from the remaining small cats.

  6.2 mya—The genus Felis (the European wildcat, the Southern African wildcat, the Central Asian wildcat, Chinese desert cat, and Near Eastern wildcat), which includes our own domestic cats, form a separate lineage from the other small cats (Asian leopard cats, fishing cats, and the Pallas’s cat).

  130,000 years ago (ya)—Near Eastern wildcats, our cats’ closest relatives, split from other Felis. A 2009 genetic study of 979 cats (domestic, feral, and wild) demonstrated that all domestic cats are descendants of Felis sylvestris lybica, the Near Eastern wildcat, and that the Near East was the origin of domestication.

  Domestication Time

  The timeline, like cats, is a little fuzzy

  12,000 ya—The earliest human grain stores of the Middle Eastern Fertile Crescent created a high concentration of rodents, which would have attracted small carnivores.

  9,500 ya—Archaeologists found evidence in Cyprus that a cat was buried with a human, along with various decorations, in a grave that was dated at almost 10,000 years old. Wildcats were not native to this island, meaning they would have been introduced by humans in some way. This individual cat may have been tamed, even if cats were not fully domesticated yet.

  5,000 ya—Evidence of cat domestication in China, where the first domesticated species was the Asian leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis): this was a short-lived relationship, perhaps because Asian leopard cats are notoriously more difficult to tame than F. s. lybica, which frequently live in close proximity to humans. (Today, all domesticated cats in China are descendants of Felis sylvestris lybica.)

  4,000 ya—Evidence of domestication in Egypt: remains of F. s. are found in tombs, and paintings and sculptures depict cats as existing side by side with humans, and with collars.

  2,500 ya—Despite a ban on exporting cats from Egypt, they moved to India, and by 2,500 ya, cats had spread to Greece, the Far East, Eurasia, and Africa.

  2,000 ya—The Romans expanded their empire, and cats tagged along.

  1,200 ya—Domestic cats spread into Northern Europe.

  500 ya—Domestic cats spread into the Americas and Australia. Cats were probably passengers on the Mayflower to serve as pest control.

  Today, cats live on every continent except Antarctica. They are perhaps the most successful species on the planet in their ability to adapt—second only to humans.

  2

  The Victorian Tipping Point

  DESPITE ALL OF the ups and downs our Raw Cat has experienced through the centuries, nothing would impact her experience quite as much as her moving indoors. Come to think of it, the same could be said for our experience, as well. This is where the evolutionary timeline starts zigging and zagging, and the human/cat relationship begins to define and redefine itself in rapid succession based on a new close-quarters living arrangement. But considering we were all doing just fine with the “you stay outdoors and we’ll stay indoors” agreement that we’d always had with cats, how and why did this ever happen? And . . . how have things progressed in the human/cat dynamic since?

  MOVING ON UP . . .

  Around 150 years ago, humans decided to bring cats into their homes. Many credit Queen Victoria for popularizing the idea of “I like cats, and I want them in my house.”

  Queen Victoria was known as a bit of a loner, and also as a huge animal lover. She advanced the cause of animal welfare and, with her patronage, assigned the term “royal” to the SPCA, making it the Royal SPCA. In addition to her many dogs, horses, goats, etc., she had two beloved Persian cats. Her last cat, White Heather, lived out her life at Buckingham Palace, long after the queen herself had died.

  During this time (Victorian era, nineteenth-century England), the practice of pet keeping increased. The humane treatment of other animals was growing, and pets were both a status symbol and a way for the genteel to demonstrate their power over nature. The fastidiousness of cats may have made them a perfect “wild but still clean” species for humans to get close to. Also, many writers and artists expressed their love for the cat, and people began having funerals for their beloved felines.

  . . . TO A DELUXE APARTMENT IN THE SKY

  Clearly, much has changed since the Rawest of Raw Cats roamed the earth, both from their relationship to humans and, to a lesser degree, their genetic makeup. While both cats and dogs have been famously successful at coexisting with humans, our relationship with cats (in stark contrast to dogs) has blossomed without us really asking them to change. The cat we had around to protect our grains from rodents is essentially the same cat we share a bed with today.

  The biggest shift in human/cat relations has occurred because of the demographic shift of cat “ownership” from a rural model to a more urban model. As previously mentioned, the role of cats in the rural model was more about being farmhand exterminators than about being part of the family unit . . . even to the extent that they might be let indoors. In contrast, the urban model has spawned a more affectionate, family-member type of relationship between cat and guardian. There are a number of reasons for this.

  First, urbanism typically means that more people live singly, rather than in groups, and with fewer relatives nearby. Combine this with more divorce and fewer children, and you can begin to see how the human/cat relationship occupies a more central role in the guardian’s life. Also, people in cities tend to live in smaller spaces and work longer hours. This has created a tendency to adopt smaller companion animals, like cats, as a matter of practicality. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget my favorite reason for cats’ popularity in urban settings: they are often portrayed as a “low-maintenance” pet! Of course, if that were the case, I wouldn’t have a job, right?

  Still, this rural-to-urban, outdoor-to-indoor paradigm shift is not a done deal—not even close. It is in progress; we are still very much shifting. For one thing, there are still many places around the world where cats are perceived as pests or vermin. And in cultures (like ours) where they are loved and revered, many still see cats in the classic “born free” model of their free-roaming ancestors and consider it cruel, an act of hostage taking, to keep them indoors. As we’ve seen throughout the story of the Raw Cat and his human companions, the happily ever after is an elusive goal.

  TURBOCHARGED EVOLUTION: HOW HAS LIVING WITH HUMANS CHANGED CATS?

  Approximately 96 percent of cats still choose their own mates these days. This has made for a relatively unaltered and organic genetic through line in the majority of our modern cats. But that doesn’t mean cats haven’t changed simply by living with us.
In a sense, cats have self-selected: friendlier cats, who are more tolerant of humans, may be more likely to be fed and sheltered by them, and more likely to mate with cats who have similar friendly/tolerant genes. So, while there’s been an absence of strong intentional selection for specific physical or behavioral characteristics among cats, it has actually been our relationship with them that has led to the most significant genetic changes.

  Cat Nerd Corner

  What Has Changed with Today’s Cat?

  In 2014, scientists collected cheek swabs for DNA analysis of twenty-two domestic cats of several breeds (Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest, Birman, Japanese Bobtail, Turkish Van, Egyptian Mau, and Abyssinian), as well as the Near Eastern and European wildcats. From this information, they were able to determine some of the key genetic changes that occurred in domesticated cats.

  Genetic changes that are associated with:

  Better ability to form memories

  Better ability to make associations between a stimulus and a reward (such as humans offering them food)

  Less rapid fear conditioning—meaning today’s cat is not as quick to go into fight-or-flight mode

  Physical characteristics:

  Smaller body

  Shorter jaw

  Smaller brain

  Smaller adrenals, which control fight-or-flight instinct

  Lengthened intestines, for adaptation to scavenging human food

  All cats have long canine teeth that allow them to kill with a bite to the neck. Domestic cats’ teeth are more narrowly spaced than those of other cats, because they are adapted to catching smaller rodents—most domestic cats’ preferred prey.

  What Has Not Changed with Today’s Cat?

  Skull shape—the shape of the skull across all cat species is similar, and they have a specialized jaw designed to kill with a powerful bite. Our cats’ skulls may be a lot smaller than lions’ and tigers’, but the structure is very similar.

  Behavior! (To a large extent . . .)

  Most cats choose their own mates, which keeps the gene pool diverse.

  Cats still (for the most part) can survive without us.

  THE PUPPET MASTER ENTERS: PUREBRED CATS

  Humans first got a decent grasp on the principles of genetics in the late 1800s, when Gregor Mendel published his famous work on the inheritance of dominant and recessive traits in pea plants. Before that era, people were breeding animals, including farm animals and, of course, dogs. At that time, breeding of most animals was for the purpose of ensuring a reliable source of food. Dogs, on the other hand, were bred for specific jobs—to aid with hunting by flushing out game, to retrieve, or to fight. But when it came to creating desired results for appearance or behaviors, success was anything but consistent, primarily because we had only a rudimentary understanding of how genetics worked.

  But once we had that understanding, humans were able to “influence” cat evolution via controlled breeding—that is, selecting cats’ mates for them. However, the starting point for breeding cats was for aesthetic, rather than functional, purposes. We weren’t asking them to change who they were, just how they looked.

  As a result, by selecting and mating cats for certain physical features, the early breeds (such as the Persian) were born. In fact, the earliest cat breeding was often an attempt to achieve certain coat colors (with the misunderstanding that breeding a black cat with a white cat would produce gray kittens). The first Championship Cat Show in the United Kingdom in 1871 featured Persians, Russian Blues, Siamese, Angoras, and Abyssinians, in addition to Manxes and shorthaired cats of many colors.

  And once there were particular breeds of cats, up sprang several clubs to celebrate these breeds, and the “cat fancy” was born: shows, judges, bows, and proud parents—like Toddlers and Tiaras. But instead of focusing on the perfect spray tan and tap-dancing routines, the fanciers developed standards that would define the preferred physical characteristics that a given breed should have, such as the shape of their eyes, ears, face, tail, and even their paws. Often, though, these differences were as simple as coat color. For example, Persians were initially defined by their long chinchilla-colored coat, not by having a flat face. Seal point coloration alone was what distinguished the Siamese from your average cat. These breeds were distinct, but not extremely different, in appearance from other domestic cats.

  Today, breeding is an altogether different beast (so to speak), with organizations recognizing anywhere from forty-four to nearly sixty different breeds of cats. In the process, we have pushed cats’ physical appearance to extremes, often without regard for the well-being of the cats being bred. We’ve made the Persian’s face flatter and the Siamese face thinner and more pointed. Consequently, the changes we have imposed through breeding are in many ways detrimental to the Raw Cat.

  By selecting Persians for the brachycephalic (short-nosed) appearance, we have actually made it harder for them to breathe, increased the chance of skin, dental, and eye disease, and made giving birth riskier and more difficult. Scottish Folds are used as a model for studying pain and arthritis because the mutations that cause the folds in their ears also lead to painful degeneration in their bones and cartilage. Manx cats are prone to back pain, constipation, and other elimination problems because of spinal cord deformities. Maine Coon cats are prone to heart disease, and Siamese cats have a higher likelihood of asthma and hyperesthesia.

  These are just a few examples. When you limit the gene pool, you increase the chance of dangerous mutations and disease. There’s no other way around it.

  Humans may be pulling the strings when it comes to cats’ exteriors, but are we making any progress in understanding their inner world?

  FOR ALL THE progress we’ve made by bringing cats indoors, cat domestication has ushered in a new set of problems, at least from where I stand. It seems that no matter where the pendulum swings, it doesn’t swing in full favor of the cat. Previously, their role as farmhands secured their survival but, as we’ve seen, not their status. Likewise, they are now too often seen as “family lite,” more of a representation of what it is to parent another than actually occupying the true nature of that relationship.

  Now, I’m not trying to hang humans out to dry; this period of massive adjustment cuts both ways, and it’s asking a lot of both parties to change the way they live in order to accommodate another. I’m just asking you to think about this: in the less-than-150 years since Queen Victoria—which is an evolutionary blink of an eye—we now ask cats to pee in a box, sleep all night, sit on the couch, not traipse across our counters or our computer keyboards . . . and last but not least, to shrink their territory from a few hundred acres to a studio apartment. The upshot here is that the more that cats are seen as home accessories, the less they can achieve the ideal we’ve set for them, and the more slippery the slope that leads them back to social pariahs.

  AND THERE YOU have it: forty-two million years of evolution, and a thorough introduction to the Raw Cat, all boiled down to a couple of short chapters. In section 2, we’ll get into everything you always wanted to know about your cat—as he or she exists in the present—but were afraid to ask.

  Bringing the Outdoors In

  Here’s a quick overview of the modern cat’s rising rank in society, once the indoor cat model was popularized:

  1871—First cat show in the United Kingdom

  1876—First manufacturer of cat food in the UK (Spratt)

  1895—Spratt brings cat food to the United States

  1895—First cat show in the United States

  1930s—U.S. production of canned cat food

  1930s—Spaying and neutering of cats and dogs introduced

  1940s—Meat shortage

  Limited meat rations in the 1940s leads to the development of dry food, which made use of livestock scraps and fish.

>   Dry food eventually becomes the majority of cat food produced and purchased.

  1947—Invention of kitty litter by Ed Lowe. Before that, people used ashes, dirt, or sand, but most people let their cats “go” outside.

  1940s and 1950s—Spay/neuter continues, but is not common

  General anesthesia is recommended, but not required!

  Somehow the idea spreads that it is “humanitarian” to allow females to have one litter.

  1950s—Explosion of cat food brands

  1969—First low-cost spay/neuter clinic opens in Los Angeles. Before that, euthanasia numbers were off the charts.