It is well documented that cats were used by witches in the practice of their craft. Witches would have their cat – known as a familiar – carry out a spell. When the spell was cast it was then delivered by a witches’s obliging feline assistant. By this time the witch in question would be many miles away and able to provide a convincing alibi if need be. Other animals were sometimes used as familiars by witches but black cats were thought to be the best option. Another theory is that cats are in fact witches themselves or are witches that have been reincarnated as cats.
ORIGINS OF CATS
Cats have been domesticated for almost 10,000 years. There is evidence to support this after a cat was found buried with its owner during an archeological dig in Cyprus. Shilourokambos in Cyprus was where the Neolitic grave that held the skeleton of a human lying next to a cat was located. This cat, however, appeared to be closer to an Aftrican Wildcat than the domesticated cats of today. The domestication of cats appears to have coincided with the beginnings of agriculture in the Near East.
An ordinary house cat is descended from as many as five different lines of African wildcats.