Here’s a Facebook short “Why Humans Are Obsessed with Cats”
(6 minutes).
The domestic cat domesticated itself about 4000 years ago,
self-selecting to be welcome around humans. It seems to be the only animal that
can survive on its own in the wild and yet invite itself into a human home, and
remember every home it has ever been in.
The short is based on the book “The Lion in the Living Room:
How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World” (2016, Abigail Tucker).
Some slightly larger wildcats, like the bobcat, cannot
legally be kept as pets and safely live in a home, but will befriend humans and
return to homes where they have been fed, even days later after hunting miles
away. Cats (apart from cetaceans) may
represent the apex of mammalian evolution (you could include bears) without
developing bipedalism, which gives primates the ability to use their hands to
make tools and becomes an enormous advantage, giving reason for a larger brain
to develop.
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