Editing Cat (section)

=Real Life Housecat Evolution and Behavior=

While [[human]]s have domesticated the cat's arch-rival, the dog, for over 10,000 years, cats have only been domesticated for a few thousand. Even using wild felines as execution method is only known to go back to the time of Alexander the Great (c. before 300 BC). While dogs have been used to fill a variety of tasks, domestic cats are primarily used for pest control, since they kill rodents and other threats to stored food without taking much interest in the supplies themselves. Since cats tend to eat these pests, they are fairly self-sufficient guards.

Of small note, it's argued by some biologists that cats effectively domesticated themselves; once humans invented agriculture, they started having a lot of juicy juicy rodents in their foodstores, leading to cats starting to come to prey on said animals. As such, cats were never directly dependent on humans for food.

Further, cats were stealth predators who were also subject to predation in turn, thus explaining their fondness for hiding in enclosed spaces and frequent skittishness around strangers.

As a result of these factors, cats have stayed unusually independent for a domesticated animal.

Feral Cats have adapted to living in Australia. Yes, these little shits could survive in a fucking [[Death World]] if there are not enough natural predators to keep their population in check. Of which there are only two on the continent. Even a house cat will kill smaller wild animals because living pest control as stated above is why humans adopted them. Unlike dogs, cats have yet to lose the instincts of their wilder cousins.