[GeorgefromGeorgia]

Also, most cats in Europe and North America came from Egypt. The Egyptian religion treated cats as gods and to kill one could lead to your demise. The Romans took Egyptian cats with them to Rome and all over the empire. Eventually they came to America. They kept the rodent population down.

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, I think that it's thought that the cat was first domesticated in Egypt or somewhere in that area, but that's much earlier.

Herodotus has some amusing material on Egyptians' attitudes about cats. He says that if a house catches on fire, they don't try to put out the fire, but instead try to prevent any cats from running inside the house (which they supposedly tried to do).

I think a lot of mummified cats have been found from ancient Egypt.