"The fifth lineage, however, included not only the fifth known subspecies of wildcat -- F. s. lybica in the Middle East -- but also the hundreds of domestic cats that were sampled, including purebred and mixed-breed felines from the U.S., the U.K. and Japan. In fact, genetically, F. s. lybica wildcats collected in remote deserts of Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were virtually indistinguishable from domestic cats.
I guess those ships' cats got around for thousands of years. They managed to spread their DNA all over the world. Makes for healthier cats in general.
27 posted on 05/27/2009 5:42:17 PM PDT by TheOldLady
