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A farmer’s perspective is actually the most valuable on this subject. Especially with cats since, like you said, we weren’t domesticating them before wolves. And that makes sense because we weren’t always farmers. That’s a relatively new part of our evolution. And so observing a cat’s behavior on a farm is going to be the most relevant environment. That girl who posts pictures of her cat Carl doesn’t ever really post pictures of other cats. I would assume there should be tons of cats around but it doesn’t seem like it.

Ryan 1mo ago

There's other cats for sure, but they are out being cats. Ours would usually live in the barn, or set up homes under the granaries, close to the pest populations. Some would venture to the house, and they would get tamed when we fed them, and they became much more like city cats.

We eventually had cattle dogs on the ranch. Rounding up cattle would be a half hour of running swearing & frustration for 2 humans. With one dog I could whistle and stand there watching while they did the same job in 3 minutes. It was pretty obvious why a wolf at your command was a great tool for a hunter gatherer.

I always think it's pretty amazing how humans took their greatest competitor, wolves, and turned them into allies in a mutually beneficial relationship. Pretty much the same thing with cats, just later in our development when the relationship made sense.

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Discussion

MAHDOOD 1mo ago

I wonder why we never succeeded in breeding large felines like panthers to help us with similar things. Maybe it’s not worth the cost since we already have dogs 🤷‍♂️

Ryan 1mo ago

I think cats would be too dangerous. I've had some bad run ins with house cats requiring stitches. Imagine something the size of a cougar. Fuck that 😂

I've also read that it has something to do with dogs genetics. Their DNA makes it easy to make large changes to their physiology with small genetic changes. That's why there are so many different shapes and sizes of dogs, while almost all cats conform to a similar structure. The cats that hung around us were small and stayed that way, but we went nuts with dogs and made everything from Chihuahuas to Great Danes.

MAHDOOD 1mo ago

Classic 😂😂😂