| A while back I read a Scientific American article about cats. The author could not comprehend why a Neolithic family (the first to keep cats)would encourage cats around the compound. This showed a serious deficit in social history.
A Neolithic farmer was probably the hardest, stone faced creature that has ever walked, yet she (women farm in many cultures) encouraged cats to hang around her cottage- not because she liked cute creatures, but because storing food and other things that rats like to eat out of rat reach was difficult, and cats chased off the rats.
In those days (and up to the last century in many areas) just about everything you had contained some component (for example, the sinew that bound the axe head to the shaft) that a rat would damage. It has been suggested that English medieval armies had an advantage over the French because they encouraged cats to hang out in their armories. Rats ate bowstrings, damaged leather armor and spoiled food for the troops.
The Big Yard has three feral cats in residence. As a result, roof rats do not venture out into the yard: the ferals are good mousers, and roof rats, unlike Norway rats, are small enough to be cat prey. Somehow, they got into the basement, possible from the roof to a drainpipe.
There are other critters who catch vermin: ferrets and terriers, many of whom were bred for their abilities to take on big rats. All of these critters were prized by subsistence farmers for their ratting/mousing. A good mouser always had a home on a farm.
Think about your ancestors some time as you pet your cat. |
