I wanted to write this page and dedicate it to our cat - Mesha. Mesha is an incredible cat. One thing is for sure - either she thinks she is human, or we think she is. I have had dogs. Dogs are great pets, if they are "good ones". Cats are the same. I've had cats. But Mesha stands out as more than a pet. I'll get more into her personality and habits later. But first, let's look at a few things true, or imagined, about cats:
Cats, cats, cats. Do you "own" one too? One doesn't really own a cat. It is more like an "I accept you, you accept me" kinda thing. I believe if cats could speak, they would either tell us what they want to be called, or tell us it doesn't matter, they don't need a name to establish an identity. It's true, isn't it? Though you may never see the "cat of the house", you know one is there.
A little history about cats:
Cat remains have been found amidst human settlements as far back as 6700 B.C. on the site of Old Jericho in Palestine. With the settling down of man's nomadic existence into a more agrarian (farming) way of life, cultivation brought with it rodents and their natural enemies, namely the cat. Cat remains dating back to 5000 B.C. have been found in Cyprus and were most likely imported from the Orient.
By 1500 B.C. the cat had become important in Egypt's daily religious life. A cat burial casket (sarcophagus) was found dating to this time made of limestone with inscriptions indicating it was a cat belonging to a high priest.
The mummification of cats was a very common practice, some even being killed for the purpose of joining their owner into the afterlife. This practice was at its height around 950 B.C. under the cult of Bastet.
Interestingly, around 500 B.C., the cat was virtually unknown in Greece at a time of increased threats to crops due to booming rodent populations. The Greeks mounted secret expeditions into Egypt to steal cats. As a result, a booming trade developed with Greek merchants selling cats to private individuals for inflated prices.
The increasing value of the cat, both for its beauty and usefulness, helped the cat find its way into Europe through Italy. It became integrated into Roman society, becomming popular as a children's pet. So taken with the cat's independant nature were the Romans, that in 2 B.C. the likeness of a cat could be found at the foot of a statue of the Goddess of Liberty in a temple in Rome.
In England, skeletons of cats dating to the early seventh century give evidence to the fact that the cat was already by that time a well established domestic animal. The Welsh King Howell the Good passed some of the first known laws protecting cats from hide hunters. 
Traditions and theories abound about the introduction of cats to Egypt. One theory is that they came to this land already domesticated from Pakistan or Persia. Another tradition holds that cats were domesticated in Egypt as early as 2600 B.C., at the time the great pyramids were being built by Zoser and Cheops.
means to make black white OR to change sides.
refers to its calculating ability and prudence.
refers to its vigilance.
refers to the cat's penchant for playing with its prey before killing it.
means restraint and caution achieves nothing (refers to an old custom of putting gloves on the cat to avoid its claws).
Her calm and collected demeanor does lose its candor sometimes. She gets in moods where she bolts around / in and out of the house. She will dart, stop abruptly, then bank off in another direction, intermittantly doing this little meow-yelp type thing. Is she mad? Or just having "kitten fun"? Both, it depends. Remember I said she "talks back"? Often times she will also wind up doing this little tantrum thing as a follow-up. Other times, she's just burning energy - I think she sleeps enough that she must store energy that gets released suddenly without warning.
MEOW (bye) NOW!
