Hello everyone. I told you the best cat would be back with more to tell. I decided to come and give you humans a history lesson on why we cats are the best – especially why I, Aria, am the best. Sabrina wanted to inform you of the history because she thinks she is more educated than me cause she is older or something, blah blah blah. I really don’t know. I stopped listening pretty much as soon as she started talking. I told her that it should be me telling the story because I am royalty and well, she is not. Plus, she is like super old – pretty sure she lived in those years and I did not want her ranting off about her childhood.

“If cats could write history, their history would be mostly about cats.” Eugen Weber

So, let us begin. It was believed that cats were domesticated on the island of Cypress 9,000+ years ago. How did they decide this? Well, they found buried cat jaws. Although, in recent years more information has been found. The first domestic cat can now be traced back 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Hopefully, they will just keep digging and discover more proof that we have been around FUREVER. Now, why did they start to domesticate cats you ask? Well, I for one can think of an easy answer and that is we cats are fabulous. Who would not want one of us in their life? But the Smithsonian says when people started to settle down and was storing crops, that the cats were coming up to eat the mice and that the people loved the pest control. I mean really? We are only good for pest control? Yeah, I don’t believe it either.

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Now for one of my favorite cat historical moments we go to Egypt. These people knew their place and worshiped us. It was known far and wide that to harm anyone of us would bring the death penalty. The Egyptian Goddess Bastet was the Goddess of Love and had a cat head instead of a human head. Scientists even found a cat cemetery in Beni-Hassan brimming with 300,000 cat mummies. We were even dressed in golden jewelry to indicate the status of our owners. If I had lived in this time period, I would have been the best of the best. I know I am descended from royalty somewhere. I do not need to prove it. You can just look at me and see it.

In 31 B.C, Egypt became a providence of the Roman Empire. Here, the Romans found the joy of cats – which, in my opinion, is why they wanted Egypt in their empire in the 1st place. I mean there could not be any other good reason other than how awesome we cats are. These were some of the best of times. It is even believed that Egyptian traders originally introduced cats to Europe, where the Greeks and the Romans used them for pest control. However, then the worst of times came for my cat ancestors. During the Middle Ages, cats in Europe became associated with superstition. During the Black Plague of 1348, rulers ordered the killing of all cats, because they were suspected of carrying the disease. I mean obviously this ruler was not working with a full bag of kibble to want to kill us for a chance we carried the disease. Clearly it was those stupid rats who were to blame. Then to top it off, for some reason, cats came to be demonized in Europe during the Middle Ages. They were seen by many as being affiliated with witches and the devil. Many were killed in an effort to ward off evil, which an action that scholars think ironically helped to spread the plague, which was carried by rats. It took a long time for the bad cat name to somewhat wear off and for people to again realize we were meant to be worshiped and nothing else. Sadly, it was not until the 1600s that the public image of cats started to change.

From Europe, cats boarded ships to the Americas, reportedly tagging along with Christopher Columbus. We cats explored the Bahamas, South America and anywhere these boats put us as pest control. My ancestors were with the settlers at Jamestown, and aboard the Mayflower. How cool is that? I know it is really cool. We were on the boats and helped discover America. Humans did not seem to know where to go so they relied on our great sense of direction and yet, you won’t read that in the history books. Cats continued their service as mousers throughout history. Not the most fun job but someone had to take care of these humans. We did not need another European experience.

Although, still randomly throughout history, we cats got blamed for bad things and events. The most popular one after the Black Plague was in 1692, the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Cats were believed to be tied to the devil and to witches and that we could talk to the humans to try to get them to sell their souls to the devil. Or if we were tired during the day we were called hag-ridden which meant we were up all night at witch meetings. The owners of cats and even dogs would be neglected, abused, and even killed. After another yet dark mark in cat history things where back on the up and up.
Time moved on and we even served as official employees of the United States Postal Service. It wasn’t being worshiped, but, hey, it was a federal job and it was our great responsibility to take care of early America. Towards the end of the 19th century, more Americans began to keep cats for their company as well as their utility.

The main reason I believe this happened was that in 1895 one of the first cat shows was held at Madison Square Garden. Now, this is more like it! People gathering to see what truly matters, us cats. It was a competition to see who the best in the show was. This is where I would have shined, no one is better looking than me, nor are they as talented as I am.
By the end of World War I, cats were commonly accepted as house pets in the U.S. Now let us jump ahead to the present time, cats are superstars: the protagonists of comic strips and television shows. This is exactly where we belong and isn’t it about time we are being recognized for our greatness again? Sadly, not everything is great. We have never fully shaken off some of the bad names from our past. The 1600s still haunt us. Some people still think we can be evil. I’m not talking like our split personality sister Joey evil, just so you know. Black cats are still thought to be bad luck for some humans. Let me be clear, no cat is evil or represents bad luck. We are all great, none are greater than me but great in their own way.

I hope you enjoyed this history lesson via Aria. What am I saying? Of course you did. It was written by me. Doesn’t everyone just want more Aria time?

If you have any questions or have any history to share or ask about, please leave a message in the comment section for my humans to answer. Also, be sure to sign up for their newsletter for tips, and more to come from Kittystead. Goodbye for now but I know you will see more of me in the future.