Cat: Did you mean...?

Cats and humans have shared in each other's lives for thousands of years and, even though they have not always been regarded as highly as in the present, have played an important role in a number of cultures. Always enigmatic, the cat has...

Cats in the Middle Ages were generally disapproved of, regarded as, at best, useful pests and, at worst, agents of Satan, owing to the medieval Church and its association of the cat with evil. Prior to the widespread acceptance of Christianity...

A mummified cat from Egypt, late Ptolemaic Period. Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California.

Roman mosaic from the House of the Faun in Pompeii, Italy. In the upper register, a cat clutches a quail. In the lower register, two ducks feed next to an assortment of seafood. National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

A human-headed cat statue from modern-day Nigeria, Nok culture, 500 BCE to 200 CE. State Museum of Egyptian Art, Munich.

A pen and ink illustration of a cat wearing a bishop's miter and holding a crosier. Folio 48 from Ms. Ludwig XV 1 (83.MR.171), a manuscript made in Germany (probably Trier), late 15th century. Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Years before they conquered the Internet, cats colonized our sofas. But they haven’t spent the last ten thousand years just snoozing. A new study reveals that tamed cats swept through Eurasia and Africa carried by early farmers, ancient mariners...

Pets were very important to the ancient Egyptians and considered gifts from the gods to be cared for until their death when they were expected to be returned to the divine realm from which they had come. In life, pets were well cared for...

The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat, oil on canvas by John Reinhard Weguelin, 1886. Auckland Art Gallery. A priestess offers gifts of food and milk to the spirit of a cat. On an altar stands the mummy of the deceased, and the tomb is decorated...

Ink drawing of a cat and mouse on limestone. The cat is dressed as a priest and presents offerings to a mouse in what was probably a satire or an illustration of a story. From the region of Thebes, Egypt, 19th-20th Dynasty, c. 1295-1075 BCE...