Semi-domesticated, selfish, Gods of ancient Egypt and the masters of the Internet. One of the most popular pets that maintains a strong relationship with us humans, cats.

The real reason for the purring of cats.

Gary Weitzman, veterinarian and executive director of the Humane Society of San Diego explains that purring generally represents happiness in cats, purring as a way of expressing that happiness, but not only that they do so as a way of "self-healing". Purring keeps bones and tissues in good condition while resting with low energy costs.

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Why are they so selfish?

Who has not been ignored by a cat? cats have always had a reputation for being self-centered, distant and selfish, especially when compared to "the best friend of man", the dog.

Dennis C. Turner, director of the Institute of Applied Ethology and Animal Psychology of Switzerland and author of "The domestic cat, biology of their behavior" says in his book that it is not about selfishness, actually from the beginning our relationship with cats It was very different from the one we had with dogs, we taught them to be sociable, we let cats be themselves, what interested us was to keep pests and rats out of the house, this made the cats keep their Lonely personality to this day.

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Semi-domesticated?

This point is closely linked to the previous one, unlike dogs with wolves, the genes of cats do not differ much from wild cats, This conclusion was reached thanks to a genetic study on household expenses made by Wesley Warren, in the University of Washington in St. Louis, United States. Another determining factor for cats to maintain their wild genes is the fact that unlike dogs, there has not been so much selection of races by humans.

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The first and only cat in space.

50 years ago, Félicette became the first cat in space, was sent to orbit by the French in 1963 and unlike many other animals sent to space, Félicette returned to the land somewhat bruised but alive. The funny thing is that she was the substitute for the mission, the cat that had to go to space was called Felix and mysteriously escaped the laboratory days before the mission.

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Bastet The Egyptian goddess.

The "mother of the cats" daughter of Ra and Isis, personified the transition from day to night and vice versa. With the cult of Bastet, the cult of the cat was developed. It was believed that these animals transmitted messages from the gods, as well as giving happiness and beauty to their owner. Often, for cats, the tombs were just as majestic as that of the nobles. Next to the body of the animal, a mouse and the favorite delights of the cat were placed, so that in the other world it could have fun and feed. The black cats enjoyed a special respect.

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The internet mascot.

The reasons are not clear, but the Internet has always had a close relationship with cats, thousands of photos and videos are published daily and are seen by millions, in fact they even have their own social network called Catmoji.

The presence of cats on the Internet is so profound that when Google's X Lab put a neural network of 16,000 computer processors for machine learning to analyze 10 million YouTube images, the first thing the network did was to try to describe a cat.

Cats have been our companions for thousands of years, having a cat brings many benefits to the home, they may seem petty but if you have one at home you will know that they can become wonderful pets.

Sources and references:

• BBC News Mundo. (2018). ¿Por qué son tan egoístas los gatos?. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-36867501 [Accessed 8 Nov. 2018].

• Dowling, S. (2018). The complicated truth about a cat’s purr. [online] Bbc.com. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180724-the-complicated-truth-about-a-cats-purr [Accessed 8 Nov. 2018].

• Daily Trend. (2018). El fenómeno de los gatos en Internet en números. [online] Available at: https://www.dailytrend.mx/radar/el-fenomeno-de-los-gatos-en-internet-en-numeros#pageview-1 [Accessed 8 Nov. 2018].

• Marín, D., Manuel, E., Villatoro, F., Bellido, P., Mulet, J., Quirantes, A., Rodríguez, P., Frías, F., López, C., Rayado, E., Grima, C., Pérez, J., Sevilla, J. and Marín, D. (2018). 50 años del primer -y único- gato en el espacio | Astronáutica | Eureka. [online] Eureka. Available at: https://danielmarin.naukas.com/2013/10/19/50-anos-del-primer-y-unico-gato-en-el-espacio/ [Accessed 8 Nov. 2018].

• Images taken from Pexels.com. (2018). Free stock photos: https://www.pexels.com/

• Images taken from Pixabay.com. (2018). Stunning Free Images: https://pixabay.com/

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