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"I am not a friend or a servant.
I am a cat that walks away when he wants
And I wish to come into your cage."

The cat in Rudyard Kipling's tale starts his story saying so, talking to a woman who, thanks to her magic skills, subordinated some of the wild animals living in the forest to man in the distant past. Apparently simple story for children tells us about the cat taking into account reality and mythology.

A small cat, a pet purring gently becomes a dangerous predator in the wild.

In ancient Egypt the cat was a holly animal, worshipped and mummified. In the Gallo-Roman times it was believed to take care of children and home. In the Middle Ages Felix Cattus used to be condemned along with witches, sacrificed and tortured during rituals. Such a fate the cat suffered in some countries until the beginning of the nineteenth century, but it did not stopped the cat's expansion; as a mouse and rat hunter it protected granaries and food stores and thus prevented the bubonic plague. Thanks to its charm it became a pet and a decoration in noblemen's homes. It is worth mentioning that Cardinal Richelieu left the entire estate to his fourteen cats in the last will.

The cat silently appeared in literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth century.

The cat's history has not been written yet and it will probably stay silent as its step on sand.

Indifferent to its past, not caring about the future, having nine incarnations so jaunty the cat proliferated in spite of persecutions.The species gradually differed due to secret friends and long distance travels. At the end of 19th century it evoked such a great interest that first exhibitions were organized. The organizations setting standards of different races and preserving them thanks to selective breeding were established either. The cat champion and aristocrat era was to come and since then it has lasted ...


The felinity is needed to appreciate the cat's company.
If you want to know how a big animal of the Maine Coon family looks like visit our Web site.

(extracts taken from the book "Cats" by Yann Arthus-Bertrand)