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It’s a question that haunts cat owners and has its roots in ancient civilizations: [/COLOR]
Do cats love us[COLOR=rgba(25, 25, 25, 0.9)]
, or just our food?
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Archaeologists believe that cats and humans have had a relationship for thousands of years, starting when crop cultivation became the norm. As agriculture spread in the Fertile Crescent (between the modern Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf), the concentration of grains would have attracted rodents like mice and voles. Rotund little rodents nestled in a field would have been easy targets for the wild cats who lived in the area, so rather than roughing it in the desert, cats moved in with people by around 7,500 BCE... sort of.
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The exact relationship between early, semi-domesticated cats and humans isn’t clear cut. While there’s some evidence that people had personal connections to cats, with one potential [/COLOR]
pet burial site in Cyprus[COLOR=rgba(25, 25, 25, 0.9)]
as old as 9,500 years old, it’s just as likely that cats tolerated the presence of humans for the convenience of plentiful mouse populations.[/COLOR]