Читать книгу Cats For Dummies - Gina Spadafori - Страница 10

IN THIS CHAPTER

Explaining the popularity of cats

Debunking some common misconceptions

Living with cats and allergies

Considerations of the indoor cat

Forget ancient Egypt, where the cat was honored as a god. The Golden Age of the Cat is now. More is written about cats, shared online about cats, and said about cats today than in all the generations before. Cats are the subject of musicals and movies, of research into their diseases, and of business reports that tally the billions of dollars spent worldwide to keep them healthy, clean, and amused. In the technology-heavy and time-short societies of developed countries, more people are discovering what poets, artists, and cat worshippers have known all along: Cats are much more than dog lite, they are cats: affectionate, beautiful, companions in their own right.

The cat is civilized — but never fully. As the velvety paws of a cat hide her razor-sharp claws, the sleek body, purring in contentment, conceals the wild spirit that lives in every cat ever born. The cat gave her companionship to us so that we may caress the tiger, as the saying goes, and on some level, that must surely be part of the charm. Our lives today are so far from what we were once — a people involved in the daily struggle for survival, hunters and seekers, both predator and prey. If we’re haunted by our primeval memories still, our cats are not. They live theirs every day. And we share those memories a little whenever we welcome cats into our homes.

The idea is both exhilarating and reassuring.

The feline body is a perfect package of grace and symmetry, of function creating a form that has inspired humankind for generations. For a look at the feline body — and how to tell whether things aren’t as they should be — see Chapter 16.

Although dogs and horses, cattle, pigs, and poultry — and even tomato plants and roses — have changed enormously in our hands, the cat has not. The cat has recently expanded in physical variety — different coat colors and types, different ear shapes and body types — but all such variations are relatively rare and still quite definitely cats, more alike than different. Look at the tabby-striped African Wild Cat — thought to be the ancestor of our domestic cats — and you see an animal much like the one purring in your lap.

The cat chose domestication on her own terms and chose our companionship the same way. We’re only now starting to understand fully what a wonderful gift we’ve been offered.