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A year ago my cat was living on the street. Today she has enough passive income to hire her own chef and masseuse. Follow her for more advice.
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While dogs were domesticated by humans, there's a growing body of evidence that cats were actually domesticated...by cats. The lack of any archaeological evidence that they were ever subject to any intentional or large-scale selective breeding, the seeming change in feline vocalizations to more closely match those of human young, alongside cats' current "partially-domesticated" status and the rapid reemergence of wild behaviors in feral populations, all point to a one-sided decision by ancient felines to settle down around humans.
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Ok ok. Bonus fact:
There is some speculation that, in addition to domesticating themselves, cats have also domesticated some humans.
The parasite toxoplasma gondii, which is carried by cats and can be contracted from dealing with their waste, causes a disease called toxoplasmosis, even in immunocompetent individuals. While not confirmed in any study, some researchers have suggested that the disease causes mental and social effects which incline the sufferer toward mild antisocial behavior, increasing their likelihood of adopting more cats, which increases their likelihood of being reinfected with toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasma gondii can also be passed from (human) mother to child at birth, meaning that the feline-domesticated human is likely to give birth to a likewise domesticated child.
This speculation has led to some news outlets breathlessly reporting that toxoplasmosis "causes" people to get more cats (or even to like cats more), and led to the association of toxoplasma gondii with so-called "crazy cat lady syndrome."