Читать книгу The Cat Handbook - Karen Leigh Davis - Страница 12

While we know that domestic cats were in Europe by the Middle Ages, no one knows for sure exactly when they first arrived in the New World. Cats may have crossed the ocean as early as the Vikings or Columbus, but by the 1600s they were most certainly coming along for the ride with European immigrants aboard sailing ships. The breed lore of the American Shorthair cat even mentions the Mayflower as one possible mode of transport. Such a tale is not implausible, since cats were brought along on long sea voyages in those days to hunt the rats and mice that ate the ship’s food supplies. Owing to this practice, North America’s domestic cats probably are descendants of cats brought from the British Isles and other western European countries.

Upon arrival in the New World, the cats were released to extend their pest-control duties in and around the new farms and colonies being settled. For centuries, these working mousers flourished in the fields and barns of America’s pioneers, allowing natural selection to mold them and multiplying into a durable, diversified lot.