Domestic cats

           ( Domestic cats) Especially young kittens, are known for their love of play.
This behavior mimics hunting and is important in helping kittens learn to stalk,
capture, and kill prey. Cats will also engage in play fighting, with each other and with humans.
This behavior may be a way for cats to practice the skills needed for real combat,
and might also reduce any fear they associate with launching attacks on other animals
Like their wild relatives, domestic cats are natural hunters able to stalk prey and pounce with sharp claws and teeth.
 
They are particularly effective at night, when their light-reflecting eyes allow them to see better than much of their prey.
Cats also enjoy acute hearing. All cats are nimble and agile, and their long tails aid their outstanding balance.

Cats communicate by marking trees, fence posts, or furniture with their claws or their waste.
These scent posts are meant to inform others of a cat's home range.
House cats employ a vocal repertoire that extends from a purr to a screech.

Domestic cats remain largely carnivorous, and have evolved a simple gut appropriate for raw meat.
They also retain the rough tongue that can help them clean every last morsel from an animal bone .
Their diets vary with the whims of humans, however, and can be supplemented by the cat's own hunting successes.

Cat evolution

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            The domesticated cat and its closest wild ancestor are both diploid organisms that possess 38 chromosomes and roughly 20,000 genes. About 250 heritable genetic disorders have been identified in cats, many similar to human inborn errors. The high level of similarity among the metabolisms of mammals allows many of these feline diseases to be diagnosed using genetic tests that were originally developed for use in humans, as well as the use of cats as animal models in the study of the human diseases.

"Cat evolution"
       
        The felids are a rapidly evolving family of mammals that share a common ancestor only 10–15 million years ago, and include, in addition to the domestic cat, lions, tigers, cougars, and many others. Within this family, domestic cats (Felis catus) are part of the genus Felis, which is a group of small cats containing approximately seven species (depending upon classification scheme). Members of the genus are found worldwide and include the jungle cat (Felis chaus) of southeast Asia, European wildcat (F. silvestris silvestris), African wildcat (F. s. lybica), the Chinese mountain cat , and the Arabian sand cat (F. margarita), among others.

All the cats in this genus share a common ancestor that probably lived around 6–7 million years ago in Asia. The exact relationships within the Felidae are close but still uncertain,e.g. the Chinese mountain cat is sometimes classified (under the name Felis silvestris bieti) as a subspecies of the wildcat, like the North African variety F. s. lybica. As domestic cats are little altered from wildcats, they can readily interbreed. This hybridization poses a danger to the genetic distinctiveness of wildcat populations, particularly in Scotland and Hungary

Cats Don't Actually Ignore Us

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Cats may try to hide their true feelings, but a recent study found that cats do actually pay attention to their owners, distinguishing them from all other people.

The study, which will be published in the July issue of Animal Cognition, is one of the few to examine the cat/human social dynamic from the feline's perspective. Cats may not do what we tell them to, but they usually adore their human caretakers.

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Co-author Atsuko Saito of The University of Tokyo explained to Discovery News that dogs have evolved, and are bred, "to follow their owner's orders, but cats have not been. So sometimes cats appear aloof, but they have special relationships with their owners."

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"Previous studies suggest that cats have evolved to behave like kittens (around their owners), and humans treat cats similar to the way that they treat babies," co-author Kazutaka Shinozuka of the University of South Florida College of Medicine added. "To form such baby-parent like relationships, recognition of owners might be important for cats."

Their study, mostly conducted in the homes of cats so as not to unduly upset or worry the felines, determined just that.

The researchers played recordings of strangers, as well as of the cats' owners, to the felines. The cats could not see the speakers.