[BenLurkin]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/7873678-3x2-940x627.jpg

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Viking Cat Fritters is still a very popular dish in many countries visited by Vikings.

[neefer]

Beware Viking kitties!

[Snickering Hound]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship%27s_cat

[PROCON]

[The Westerner]

Cats are domesticated!?

[MUDDOG]

Ancestors of Maine coon cats.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

The reason for cats being with humans is simple.

They were natural hunters, still are as anyone with an indoor/outdoor cat can attest to. When humans started early agriculture having ready stores of grain attracts rodents, ie kitty cat food.

Food chain; grain, mice, cats. See, we’ve been working for cats all along. They have us properly domesticated.

[doorgunner69]

My paternal grandfather ran away from Ireland before 1900, joining the merchant marine and traveled the world. Still had some sailing vessels then as I recall him saying. All had cats on board, for rat patrol no doubt.

Dad said they always had cats at home growing up, grandfather loved them. Took him a while to warm to dogs.

[Hugin]

[Gen.Blather]

Felines invented catamarans. (That’s why they call them that.) They discovered Catalonia and Catistrono. (Why do you think the swallows leave? They call them swallows because that’s what happens to them.) If you read the tuna cat food it says, “a cat’s natural food.” They fish with one paw in the water. Then, there was a catastrophic storm. It was a cat 9. After that cats gave up the sea, but left us with a system for describing the severity of storms.

Incidentally, here is a fun fact to amaze your friends. Catatonic is a condition caused by catnip and beer.

[JoeFromSidney]

Cats were worshipped as gods by the Egyptians. Cats have never forgotten this, as evidenced by their behavior.

[bgill]

We just need the money," she said.

No you don't. It's not that complicated. Humans toss out food scraps or they have grains for their livestock which bring in rodents. Cats wander up and see free food. They associate food with humans. They move in with humans and don't leave their easily had food source.

Same principle aboard ships. Cats kept the rodents, bugs and other creepy crawlies in check for the humans. A win-win.

[Albion Wilde]

we know little else about how cats were domesticated.

Cats weren't domesticated. They colonized humans and demanded to be cared for. Sort of like the ROP.

[Verginius Rufus]

I remember an article in Scientific American, I think it was, a long time ago, which had found genetic links between the cats of the Black Sea and the cats of the British Isles (maybe specifically the Hebrides and Man)...the only logical explanation was that the Vikings who sailed between those areas had cats on board.

[dayglored]

More Viking Kitty pings!

[martin_fierro]