Why do we love cats?
Research Topics
The story of domestication of cats is a very interesting one. Unlike other domesticated animals (dogs, cattle, horses, pigs, etc.) who are social animals and are providing various practical assistance to humans, cats are non-social animals with hardly a serious function, at least as it was 11 000 years ago, when cat was domesticated.
I discuss countless sayings about cats and propose the reason why cats are so much loved by many humans, particularly, by creative people and artists of various professions. We will also discuss why there are people who hate cats and are even afraid of them.
- You can see the chapter from my 2014 book Tigers, Lions, and Humans: History of Rivalry, Conflict, Reverence and Love, a special chapter "Leonardo Da Vinci’s Masterpiece".
[...] If there are very few humans whom we can trust in
distinguishing true masterpieces from other great works of art,
Leonardo Da Vinci is certainly one of them. Leonardo combined the
mind of a brilliant scholar with the mind of visionary artist and is
rightly considered one of the greatest geniuses of humankind.
Although Leonardo left us a great number of true masterpieces, we
do not know many phenomena or works of art Leonardo appreciated
himself as “masterpieces.” We know two instances when Leonardo
directly acknowledged something to be a true masterpiece. The first
case is the anatomy of human foot: “Human foot is a masterpiece of
engineering” declared da Vinci. Any contemporary scholar, biologist
or engineer would agree with these words. In the second case
Leonardo used his highest praise for a cat: “Little feline is a
masterpiece.” Leonardo was by no means the only scholar or artist who was
fascinated by cats. Hundreds or even thousands of writers, poets,
musicians, scholars, and politicians left us quotes that capture the
human fascination with cats. To fill the love and reverence towards
cats that we humans have, it is best to hear the words of these
scholars, writers, poets and artists about cats [... Continue reading]