My family runs an adventurer's guild.

Cats and dogs are the two most common mainstream pets in human society around the world today, and they are also behemoths that crush all other competitors in the pet world. Compared with cats and dogs, the scale of keeping other pets such as guinea pigs, hamsters, and parrots is really insignificant.

However, while cat lovers are busy petting their cats and dog lovers are busy walking their dogs, few people know that the time it took for these two most familiar animals to leave the wilderness and live with humans was actually quite different before and after.

Among them, dogs were the first animals domesticated by humans—long before the flame of civilization was lit, long before any plant was sown by humans, and long before all other animals were domesticated, dogs had already transformed from wolves into loyal friends of humans.

According to current archaeological discoveries, starting around 30,000 years ago, prehistoric humans in the Neolithic Age, who were still eating raw meat, wandering around, and relying on hunting and gathering for survival, had already begun to try to domesticate wolves into dogs, using them as night watchmen in early human cave dwellings and as assistants when going out hunting.

By 15,000 years ago at the latest, the domestication of dogs had been largely successful. Before the first city was built and the first wheat field was cultivated, dogs had become the first domesticated animal for humankind.

When a small group of Asian hunters from the Mongolian Plateau, 15,000 years ago, followed migrating mammoth herds across the frozen Bering Strait from Siberia into the Americas and became the ancestors of all Native Americans, all they had beside them, besides the stone spears in their hands and the fur coats on their shoulders, were dogs that had just been domesticated but had become inseparable from humans—at that time, the earliest agriculture had not yet appeared, and the ancients naturally did not have seeds of crops, and the various poultry and livestock that would later be domesticated had not yet been successfully domesticated.

Therefore, when these Stone Age yellow-skinned hunters crossed the frozen Bering Strait and arrived in the New World of the Americas across the ocean, their only companions when they left Asia were their loyal dogs.

When the Bering Strait land bridge connecting the Americas and Asia was severed again, the Native Americans who had been isolated from their Old World compatriots for a long time, for the next ten thousand years, although they had no rice, no wheat, no iron tools, no donkeys, no oxen, and no warhorses, at least they still had dogs as companions, just like the people of Eurasia.

Then, around 3000 BC, when agriculture began to emerge and spread, and various ancient civilizations began to flourish, almost all of humanity, from Eurasia to North and South America and sub-Saharan Africa, was already keeping dogs.

Even on the isolated southern island continent of Australia, dogs began to appear soon after the first wave of Southeast Asian aborigines arrived. Some of these dogs, originally domesticated by humans, escaped into the wild due to various circumstances and replaced wolves in their ecological niche (Australia has no wolves), becoming the dingoes that are still commonly seen today.

—It truly is a case of "wherever there are people, there are dogs".

In comparison, the history of cats being domesticated by humans is much shorter. Until around the time of Jesus' birth, at least 80 percent of the world's population had either never seen a cat or had only seen wild cats, but did not know that cats could be kept as pets (Jesus himself should have seen domestic cats, after all, his hometown was very close to the place where domestic cats originated).

However, although the domestication and spread of cats came much later than that of dogs, their subsequent development was incredibly rapid, and they quickly gained a top-tier pet status, on par with dogs, in various countries, ethnic groups, and religions around the world.

In modern society, cats have further capitalized on the "cute culture" trend, making cat ears, collars, bells, and tails tangible symbols of "cuteness." This has led to their continuous expansion and growth across the world, captivating countless cat lovers who are unable to tear themselves away from petting and cuddling cats. Ultimately, they have surpassed dogs in popularity. One of the most compelling pieces of evidence for this is that there are currently approximately 500 million dogs living on Earth, while there are 600 million cats!

—In the competition for living space and to win human favor, dogs, which have been domesticated by humans for at least 15,000 years, have been overtaken by cats, which have lived with humans for at most 4,000 years... It's hard to know what to say.

Dog: Woof woof! I was here first... Whether it was being raised, playing with humans, or being cute, I was a million years ahead of you! But why, why are you the more popular now, woof?!

Cat: Meow! Who told me to be cuter than you? Cute is justice, meow!

Even in China today, the number of pet cats has reached 5810 million, ranking second in the world. Even if we include dogs kept for meat, the number of dogs in my country is only 2740 million, less than half the number of cats (the first place is naturally the United States, with 8060 million cats and 5530 million dogs, so there are still more cats than dogs).

—This gives a glimpse into the captivating and extraordinary charm of cats.

However, although keeping, petting, and cuddling cats has become very popular in China, from a historical perspective, cats are an entirely foreign species in China. The first people to domesticate cats as pets were the Egyptians along the Nile River.

The ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids were also among the first cat owners and cat lovers in human history.

Because they genuinely worship cats as deities, both ideologically and legally...

Just as early Homo sapiens "left Africa" ​​100,000 years ago and became the common ancestors of all humans around the world today, modern domestic cats also left Africa more than 2,000 years ago and gradually conquered cat lovers all over the world.

However, although both humans and domestic cats originated in Africa, wild cats are found throughout the Old World, from Scotland to South Africa, from Spain to Mongolia. Long before the birth of human civilization, wild cats were present in various forms.

To give a similar example: all humans in the modern world, regardless of which continent they live on, what their skin color is, or which ethnic group they belong to, are descendants of the Homo sapiens hunter-gatherers who "left Africa" ​​100,000 years ago. But at the same time, there are also ancient hominid remains in all parts of the world that have been eliminated by modern Homo sapiens, such as "Neanderthals" in Europe and "Peking Man" in China.

The difference is that other branches of humankind are now extinct, while untamed wildcats still roam around everywhere.

—According to biological classification, there are as many as twenty-seven subspecies of cats, which vary in size, coat color and pattern.

In arid regions, cats' fur tends to be paler and lighter in color, with less distinct markings; while cats from humid regions tend to have darker fur, with darker spots or stripes.

Before the agricultural revolution and the arrival of the settled era, there was not much interaction between cats and humans.

When primitive people wrapped in animal skins emerged from their caves, carrying spears and leading dogs, searching for prey and wild fruits in the wilderness, the agile wildcat was merely a small animal to them that was neither easy to hunt, had little meat, and whose meat was difficult to eat.

In the eyes of wild cats at that time, humans wielding sharp stone spears were roughly equivalent to a group of "big guys they couldn't mess with." Even if they encountered them by chance, they would only run away at the first moment and would never meow and come over to act cute.

Until the agricultural revolution and the rise of settled civilizations in the Middle East, marking the early stages of humanity's agricultural era, cats were not among the first animals to be domesticated. In fact, no one even considered domesticating cats. This was because, for ancient human civilizations with limited productivity, domesticating any wild animal required enormous resources; some benefit was necessary for anyone to be willing to attempt it. For example, dogs helped guard homes and hunt; horses and donkeys made significant contributions to transportation; cattle helped plow fields; and sheep provided meat, wool, and milk.

More importantly, the ancestors of most domesticated animals, such as dogs (wolves), horses, cattle, and sheep, were originally social animals with a clear hierarchy. They naturally possessed a mindset of obeying the leader's commands and were accustomed to living with many of their own kind. When humans domesticated them, it was essentially replacing the alpha wolf (or alpha sheep, etc.) and allowing them to continue living in groups as before. Therefore, it was relatively easy—these social animals were already used to being in close proximity, so as long as there was sufficient food and a suitable place to stay, they could easily adapt to small spaces.

If it were animals that do not have a social nature, the challenge of domesticating them would be to figure out how to keep them living peacefully in a pen instead of fighting each other to the death. This alone would have been a difficult task for ancient human owners.

For example, even today, it is still very difficult for humans to keep a large group of hamsters living in the same cage for an extended period of time.

However, cats don't seem to meet the above domestication criteria: cats have too little meat and don't taste good; cats don't have much labor capacity, and they are not social animals but solitary hunters, lacking obedience... What's worse, their dietary requirements are too high, they eat almost only fish and meat, and they are very arrogant towards humans—they don't seem like ideal subjects for domestication at all.

However, another uninvited little animal changed the fate of cats in human society: the mouse.

—As agriculture first emerged in the Middle East, the oldest farmers finally had a stable source of food. They gradually gave up migration and hunting, began to gather in permanent villages, and built warehouses to store food.

However, to the surprise of these prehistoric humans, with the appearance of the granary, rats also moved in!

Compared to the arduous task of searching for grass seeds in the wild, raiding human granaries to feast is clearly a more pleasant and enjoyable lifestyle for rats—and so, the oldest human village quickly became a paradise for rats.

The primitive humans who had just become farmers found their lives in chaos because of these uninvited guests: rats dug holes in their houses, gnawed on their tools, stole and contaminated their food, and even bit their babies in their sleep!

Not to mention that rats can also spread plagues; stories of "a plague outbreak killing an entire village" are common in ancient history.

Besides rats, snakes that could sneak in and bite were also a major threat to the ancient farmers who lived in communities.

Fortunately, just as barley and wheat in human granaries are a deadly temptation for hungry rats, a large number of rats gathered in human villages are also a deadly temptation for equally hungry cats.

So, just as the rats were chasing wheat and vegetables into human villages, the cats also followed the rats and came to the side of the humans, bringing great joy to the humans who were suffering from the rat infestation. In the eyes of the humans, these cats were small and could not cause any great damage, nor would they steal grain, so at first they let them be.

When people discovered that cats prey on snakes and mice, they even took the initiative to approach and feed the cats, which gave the cats a reason to establish themselves in human society.

Moreover, the deceptively cute appearance of cats is also an important reason why they are accepted by humans.

—If we observe and summarize carefully, we will find that all humans and mammals in infancy have several common characteristics: a large head-to-body ratio, round and large eyes, short and thick limbs, soft skin or fur... In the most concise way, it can be summarized as "short, round, soft and warm".

Millions of years of evolution have endowed mammal cubs with these adorable features, primarily to gain their mother's love and, if they lose their mother, to be nursed by other females, thus increasing their chances of survival.

However, even after cats reach full adulthood, they still retain the "short, round, soft, and warm" physical characteristics. In addition, their small size makes them not a threat to humans. On the contrary, they are useful for catching mice, which has inadvertently made them popular with humans.

Thus, starting about five thousand years ago, ancient humans who entered agricultural civilization began to succumb to the allure of cats and tried to bring them home and tame them.

Even the ancient Chinese people in the far east tried to tame the wild cats around them, but they ultimately failed—or rather, they didn't have time to tame them before the Egyptians beat them to it.

The ancient Egyptians were able to be the first to domesticate cats as pets for several reasons:

First, since dogs can help with hunting, while cats can only be used to catch mice, humans only developed a need for cats after entering an agricultural society and having a greater surplus of food.

The Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian civilizations in the Middle East were the first places in the world to experience an agricultural revolution, and therefore the first to begin domesticating cats, naturally yielding the earliest results.

Secondly, wild cats are solitary hunters with high vigilance. For them, human villages with many rats are just a hunting ground with abundant food, not a warm home where they can build cat houses and give birth to kittens.

Therefore, no matter how much food was available in human villages, the solitary wildcats of ancient times preferred to settle in the wilderness far from human habitation rather than become human companions.

However, Egypt's geographical environment is very unique. Apart from the Nile River, it is mostly a desolate and barren desert. The banks of the Nile are densely populated villages and towns, with almost no open fields.

No matter how proud and unruly wild cats are by nature, they can't make a home in the desert and can only hold their noses and live as neighbors with humans along the crowded banks of the Nile.

Over time, Egyptian cats became accustomed to living with humans day and night. Even when they went a step further and were kept as domestic animals, these Egyptian cats, who were used to seeing humans, did not have much of a psychological barrier.

Third, the ancient Egyptians' fervent adoration for cats is something no other civilization in the world can replicate. Other agricultural societies that domesticated cats merely sought them as helpers for catching mice and snakes, or at most, as playthings to be petted and cuddled in their spare time. But the ancient Egyptians genuinely worshipped cats as masters and deities!

More than 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians living along the Nile River, like other early agricultural peoples around the world, encountered the problem of rats and, of course, discovered cats, who actively came to catch them.

Up to this point, it seems no different from other cultures. However, the observant Egyptian priests keenly noticed that a cat's eyes change with the movement of the sun; during the day, the pupils are slits, but at night they become round and full.

The Egyptian priests were immediately inspired, believing they had discovered the truth: the cat was actually the embodiment of the moon goddess!

Thus, a female cat goddess named Buster appeared in Egyptian religious mythology.

The supreme god of Egypt is the sun god Ra, so the cat god Buster, who represents the moon, is naturally second only to the supreme god. If the sun god Ra is compared to Buddha Shakyamuni, then the cat god Buster is at least equivalent to Guanyin Bodhisattva.

As is well known, the more recently a society emerged from ignorance, the more devout its people's faith in the gods. Therefore, the ancient Egyptians built magnificent temples for the cat god Bastet, employed many dedicated priests to worship the cat god, and established legal religious holidays for offering sacrifices to the cat god, requiring the entire nation to come to Bastet's temple on this day and offer generous sacrifices.

Then, these Egyptian priests who worshipped the cat goddess Bastet, in order to expand their power and influence, continued to elevate the status of cats to an infinite degree, claiming that piety towards cats was piety towards gods! Worshipping cats was worshipping gods!

In this way, from around 3000 BC, at the beginning of civilization, the ancient Egyptians were tricked into becoming the most devout cat lovers in the world. They not only dared not harm cats, but also respectfully worshipped them and offered them all kinds of food.

But... cats are such disobedient little creatures, they are really super hard to tame!

Although the ancient Egyptians worshipped cats as gods, the wild cats still ignored them and refused to go home with them to enjoy the offerings, no matter how many meals of fish and meat they ate as tribute.

However, the devout Egyptians are clearly very persistent when it comes to worshipping the cat god. Despite being repeatedly rejected by the cat, they continue to try their best to please him.

For over a thousand years, the ancient Egyptians persevered in feeding and gifting cats, enduring countless scratches along the way. Finally, around 1600 to 1900 BC (the exact date is disputed), they successfully domesticated the Egyptian desert cat, making it a member of the Egyptian family.

The evidence is that, in ancient Egyptian murals before this period, there were only scenes of cats hunting in the wild. However, in ancient Egyptian murals from after this era, scenes of cats living together with humans finally appeared, showing that cats had entered Egyptian households.

With the successful domestication of cats, a series of "cat protection laws" were quickly drafted and introduced in Egypt. According to Egyptian law at the time, cats were super protected animals, and without the Pharaoh's special permission, it was forbidden to export cats abroad.

If an Egyptian finds a dead cat on the street, he must stand still and shout, "This cat was not killed by him," and then the guards will come to investigate the truth. If someone dares to kill a cat, whether intentionally or unintentionally, whether Egyptian or foreign, he will be treated like a murderer and sentenced to death immediately without question.

If a family's cat dies, the whole family must shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning.

As we all know, the most famous things about ancient Egypt, besides the pyramids, are mummies. But what many people don't know is that wealthy Egyptians would also mummify their deceased cats, hoping their souls would be resurrected and return to their side... To prevent their cats from going hungry after their resurrection, they would also mummify mice to be buried with them—truly the ultimate cat lovers!

Although ancient Egypt had laws prohibiting the export of cats, its protection was comparable to that of giant pandas in my country after the founding of the People's Republic. However, the number of cats in Egypt was ultimately much greater than that of giant pandas, and the Egyptian government's ability to govern was not as strong as that of the People's Republic of China.

Over time, some Egyptian cats were eventually sold overseas by unscrupulous merchants and ended up in the hands of the Greeks and Phoenicians, two seafaring peoples.

Clearly, among the Greeks and Phoenicians, cats did not enjoy a divine status; they were simply regarded as ordinary animals. Thus, cats were resold to even more distant places, though the spread seemed remarkably slow—according to Greek historical records, the "barbarians" of Thrace and the Caucasus had never even seen a cat by the time of Alexander the Great's eastern expedition. The Persians also did not have a tradition of keeping cats, with only a small number of Egyptian cats kept in their courts as rare and exotic animals.

Then, around the time of Jesus' birth, the Greeks, Persians, and Romans had widely adopted cats. Further east, in India, pet cats had also appeared after Alexander the Great's conquests. However, China at this time was still a "catless zone," and even emperors like Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han could not enjoy the pleasure of petting or cuddling cats.

So, when did cats first appear in China?

Wild cats have existed in China since ancient times, but the Chinese did not start keeping cats as pets until much later.

The reason for this situation is that the Chinese have never been able to successfully domesticate the native wildcat.

Just like the ancestors of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, our Chinese ancestors also suffered from rat infestations after settling down and farming. They were also worried about how to snatch food from the rats when they saw a beautiful little animal carrying a rat in its mouth, gracefully scurrying out of the granary and attracting their attention.

The earliest written record of cats in Chinese history is found in the Yi Zhou Shu Shi Fu Jie from the Western Zhou Dynasty: "...King Wu went hunting and captured 22 tigers, 2 cats, ... 3,508 deer."

This is a record of King Wu of Zhou's hunting harvest. Among the various prey he captured, cats were the fewest, with only two, while tigers numbered twenty-two, showing that cats were harder to catch than tigers.

However, the fact that the Zhou people actually wrote cats seriously on their prey list proves that the "cats" here refer to wild cats.

By the Spring and Autumn Period, there were more records of cats in classical texts. For example, when the Book of Songs described the Hedong region as having abundant resources, it said that there were "bears and brown bears, cats and tigers" there, which shows that cats in the Central Plains at that time were still considered wild animals like bears, brown bears, tigers and wolves.

In addition, there is an explanation for the naming of the animal as "cat" - people named this small animal "cat" because it could catch mice and protect seedlings: "Mice are good at harming seedlings, and cats can catch them, thus removing the harm to seedlings. The character '顾' (gù) is derived from '苗' (miáo).

The Book of Rites from the Warring States period even stipulated the sacrifices to cats: "Welcome the cat, because it eats field mice; welcome the tiger, because it eats field pigs, welcome and sacrifice to them." — Cats and tigers are both felines, helping humans guard farmland, protect crops and ensure harvests, and therefore were sacrificed to by farmers.

Kittens eat field mice, and tigers, as large cats, eat wild boars and badgers. For agricultural peoples who rely on farming for food, this is truly a great deed, which is why they were included among the eight animal idols to be worshipped.

By the late Warring States period, wildcats that roamed and hunted mice appeared in Chinese cities and were known as "livestock beasts".

However, although Chinese people at that time could often see cats, there was no relationship of raising or keeping them, let alone pets. It was just a natural symbiotic relationship, similar to beneficial birds preying on pests.

Catching mice is merely a way for cats to satisfy their survival needs; they basically catch whatever they think is delicious. Therefore, people in the Warring States period criticized them, saying, "Although they are good at catching mice, they love to fight chickens even more."

In fact, ancient Chinese people did try to tame wild cats and keep them as their own, just like dogs.

As early as the Yao, Shun, and Yu era, five thousand years ago, the Chinese had already tried feeding cats with millet mixed with meat.

Unfortunately, the domestication of cats was extremely difficult. The ancient Egyptians had already worshipped cats as gods, but the proud cats still dragged their feet for over a thousand years before reluctantly accepting the Egyptians' invitation and entering Egyptian homes.

In comparison, the enthusiasm and adoration shown by ancient Chinese people in taming cats was far less than that of cat lovers in ancient Egypt.

Looking at these nasty little creatures, who eat their cat food without fail but still ignore you, you eventually become disheartened.

Since the wild cats in our country could not be domesticated, we could only wait for foreign domestic cats to be introduced to the Central Plains.

Thus, the Chinese, who had no cats to pet, craned their necks and gazed at the distant West, waiting from the Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty, from the Zhou Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty, and from the Qin Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty, but still could not pet a cat. When Zhang Qian first "opened up the Western Regions" in the Western Han Dynasty, the "domesticated" cats of Egypt had not yet spread widely to Central Asia and Xinjiang, so he could not bring back cats and grapes together.

On the streets of Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, one could still only see domestic wild cats that roamed freely.

It wasn't until the early Eastern Han Dynasty, after Ban Chao's second expansion into the Western Regions, that the first domestic cats were introduced to the Central Plains during the reign of Emperor Ming of Han (57-75 AD), accompanied by Indian monks. They first appeared on the historical stage of my country at the White Horse Temple in Luoyang. However, these were not the original Egyptian cats, but rather mixed-breed Indian cats that had undergone countless crossbreedings during their spread.

Because domestic cats have only been domesticated for a short time, there is no reproductive isolation between domestic cats and wild cats worldwide. Therefore, wherever Egyptian domestic cats are spread, they quickly interbreed with local wild cats, giving birth to various new breeds of cats.

For example, the most common tabby cat in China today is a breed resulting from a cross between foreign domestic cats and domestic wild cats.

Next, although domestic cats had already been introduced to China during the reign of Emperor Ming of Han, no matter what kind of new thing it is, its spread and diffusion requires a process and cannot be accomplished overnight.

In the Records of the Three Kingdoms - Book of Wei, Cao Mengde once praised his subordinate Ding Fei in this way: "Having Fei is like having a dog that steals but is good at catching mice. Although the thief may suffer minor losses, he can keep my money intact."

Cao Cao did not compare Ding Fei to a cat, but rather to a "stealing dog" that was "good at catching mice". This shows that during the Three Kingdoms period when Cao Cao lived, and even during the Western Jin Dynasty when the Records of the Three Kingdoms was written, the practice of keeping dogs to catch mice was more common in China, while keeping cats to catch mice was not yet widespread.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, cats in China finally took over the responsibility of catching mice in people's homes from dogs and realized their own value. Jia Sixie's "Qimin Yaoshu" (written at the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, i.e., 533-554) mentions: "In the house, cats are put in a few days in advance, mouse holes are blocked, the walls are muddied, and the floor is swept clean." This shows that cats were already widely kept in northern China at this time.

From then on, Chinese families had a little fairy called a "cat" to keep them company.

In China, cats are not only skilled mousers in the fields, but they have also entered homes and even the imperial court, becoming helpful helpers in preventing mice in people's homes and favorites of noble ladies in the palace.

Beginning with the Tang Dynasty, many highly domesticated ornamental cat breeds were introduced to China from Central Asia and the Western Regions, such as the Persian cat, which entered China during the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Keeping cats subsequently became popular among China's upper class, becoming a refined hobby.

Throughout subsequent history, keeping cats has remained one of the traditional hobbies of the Chinese people.

Emperor Tianqi of the Ming Dynasty was a great lover of cats and even set up a special agency for cat care in the Forbidden City.