The word domesticated means to tame, live in close association with human beings as a pet or work animal and usually creating a dependency so that the animal loses its ability to live in the wild. Technically house cats are domesticated animals. Scientists now believe that about 12,000 years ago, based on the findings drawn from an analysis of nearly 1,000 cats around the world, that the ancestors of today’s tabbies, Siamese and Persians wandered into Near Eastern settlements during the dawn of agriculture. However these felines were looking for food, not human companionship.
As it just so happens, they found both, as there were many rodents feeding on stored grain all throughout the area. Cats stayed here feeding on the rodents for 12 millennia, wandering off every now and then to visit their wild cousins. Basically, it is believed that cats domesticated themselves to survive and thrive on the rodents. Getting along with humans was crucial as they would have nowhere else to feed if the humans chased them off, so they domesticated themselves to benefit themselves and in turn the humans didn’t complain as the cats kept the rodent population to a minimum, thus benefiting them from not losing their grain.
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