Nah, that’s not how it went down. Cats are such weirdos because they domesticated themselves instead of being domesticated by humans, and because they’re descended from a small species of wild cat that was both a predator species and a prey species.
Dogs and other domestic animals we molded to suit our purposes, but cats just kind of… showed up. The only selection pressure on them was “tolerate humans just enough to get at the rats in the humans’ granaries”. If anything, they domesticated us. Their meowing behavior is an attempt to mimic the cries of human babies.
Yeah. Domestic cats are barely different than wild cats. There are still several wild cat species you’d totally mistake for a weird housecat.
Dogs have some weird gene that lets them have extreme morphological variation. So of course humans abused the crap out of that.
At least most cats still have an independent streak.
If humans dissappeared tomorrow, cats would survive, and possibly thrive for a time.
Chihuahuas, Corgis, beagles, etc? Not so much. Hell, from what I understand, British Bulldogs have been bred to the point that natural birth is a literal physical impossibility, requiring human surgical intervention to birth.
Bulldogs & Pugs are a cruel human creation…
We intentionally bred dogs to suit our needs. We have a few intentionally bred cats (e.g. Persian longhairs) but the standard shorthairs are not too far from their feral mousing cousins.
Sadly, the cats we domesticated are likely not to live long. So it really is extra cruel to abandon your kitty without a home. They don’t have enough instincts to figure out hunting themselves while also avoiding predation.
Also the wilds are super harsh compared to human homes. Even the parks and foothills near human settlements are rough living.
The top cat is a saber-tooth whose population died out entirely because they didn’t do like the house cat’s ancestors did. So who’s laughing now?
