Munchkin Cats

It almost seems strange that there was ever a time when munchkin cats were not a part of our lives. It was just a short time ago that munchkin cats swaggered into our lives. Why were munchkin cats so late in being welcomed into our world? This question can be answered quite simply; they didn’t need us to survive. Munchkin cats were surviving life fine on their own. It was people that interrupted their world when we invented agriculture. Agriculture resulted in large scale storage of grains. This attracted the usual and well known group of freeloader critters, such as mice and rats. This grain began to attract these rodents, and the rodents then attracted munchkin cats. The munchkin cats considered them to be tasty meals. This resulted in the munchkin cats setting up their house close to humans. Eventually, munchkin cats moved right on into our territories, homes, and hearts.

Who were these first munchkin cats? To answer this question, let’s first educate you a little more in general about cats themselves and then move on to specifically the munchkin cat. The first clue of where cats came from lies in where agriculture was first practiced. Agriculture took root in the Middle East in a great sweep from modern day Turkey to Egypt. In this area ranges the African wild cat, Felis libyca.  African wild cats are slightly larger than our modern house cats. They are yellow in color and have muted stripes. These cats have a docile, almost laid back nature. They still tend to live and hunt near human dwellings today. Locals like to catch these wild cats and rear the young wild cats as their pets. When these cats mature, the wild side of these cats tends to behave very much like our familiar housecats. This is because these wild cats are now being raised by humans and no longer require for them to fend for themselves. A very good case can be seen by the advanced designating Felis libyca   as the principal founding population for domestic cats. There are at least two other varieties of wild cat that are speculated to have contributed to the genetic makeup of domestic cats. The first is the Felis silvestris , This is a European wildcat that appears to have darker markings and a peppery spirit to the African wild cat base. The second is the Pallas or Steppe cat (Felis manul ). This cat appears to have contributed long-haired coats to the mix.

Statues found in the years 6,000 B.C. in Anatolia, which today in known as modern Turkey, show women playing with domestic cats. This shows that cats clearly had become common and were possibly affectionate pets. The earliest written records of cats appear approximately 4,000 B.C. in Egypt. This is where cats were frequently kept to keep the mice and rats out of and away from the stored grains. This was probably considered a great time be a cat. These cats were thought to be the embodiment of the goddess Bast (or Bastet). There is a necropolis at her principal temple at Bubastis that contains mummified cats. So from this alone, cats were loved and cared for and gave love and care back to humans.

From this time, the Romans spread the domestic cat northward into central Europe and west to Britain during this expansion of their empire. Cats quickly adapted and became great hunters.  As they continued to move north and east in Europe, the Vikings began to use cats for both rodent hunters as well as pets. The Viking goddess of love and war, Freyja, had huge winged cats to draw her chariot. It was from this time period that the custom became popular to give new brides a kitten. These kittens were given in the name of Freyja.

Then the middle ages came. This era was a very bad time to be a cat. This was due to the belief of what witches and devils were. Cats were said to be witches familiars, and in league with the devil. This superstition caused cats to be routinely killed during festivals. Sometimes they were burned alive or thrown off tall buildings. The Europeans paid heavily for their cruelty to cats. The deaths of so many of these cats allowed the rodent population to rise out of control. This in turn brought the Black Death; known to have nearly wiped out the European population. Eventually, the cats’ cleanly ways and hunting prowess redeemed them in the eyes of Europeans, so that by the 1600s, people in France began putting little holes near the bottom of their doors to allow cats to enter and leave their homes as they please.

This allowed cats to flourish in Asia and they continued to be hunters as well as cherished pets. Cats are often subjects for drawings and paintings in ancient China. There are many pictures of cat paintings from this era. In Japan, a picture of cats, in the form of Maneki Neko, are usually portrayed as a sitting cat with one paw raised and bent. This is considered to be good fortune. Today, cats are often found in businesses to draw in money.

The history of cats is a fascinating one, worthy of much more in depth study. Now we have the history of the munchkin cat. This can only be dated back to the last 20 to 30 years. The munchkin cat also started out as free and wild as can be. The breed of munchkin cat was first discovered in the US in 1964 by a woman in Westbury New York. For some reason the munchkin cat just seemed to disappear. It was not known what happened to the munchkin cat until they reappeared in 1983. A woman in Louisiana found not one, but two munchkin cats under a truck on her property. It just so happens that both of these munchkin cats were females and both of them were also pregnant. The cats were taken in and as they had the babies, the babies were also munchkin cats. These kittens were given away, but it was from one of another woman, that received one of the kittens, that actually began breeding them again. In 1991 through a televised cat show that was held in Madison Square Garden, the world got to see these adorable little munchkin cats and fell in love with them. However, it was not until 2003 that the munchkin cat was finally recognized, and achieved TICA Champion status to be its own breed of cat.

More information on Munchkin Cats can be found at http://www.munchkincats.info.