Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we begin, we have a huge shout out to McKenna in North Central Florida. McKenna loves our podcast and absolutely loves cats.
SPEAKER_01This one is for you, McKenna. Thanks for listening. If there's one thing we know about you, it's that you have fantastic taste in animals.
SPEAKER_00McKenna's favourite animal is the perfect topic for today. Did you know there are around 600 million pet cats in the world right now?
SPEAKER_01Whoa! 600 million? That is a massive amount of fur. That's enough cats to fill 10,000 football stadiums.
SPEAKER_00Exactly! They are the most popular animal on the entire internet. There are over 2 million cat videos on YouTube with tens of billions of views. I bet people have always loved them, right? Actually, no. 10,000 years ago, there were zero pet cats. None. They were wild, fierce hunters, prowling the harsh deserts of the Middle East.
SPEAKER_01Wait! You're telling me that cute, fluffy little kitties used to be wild desert predators?
SPEAKER_00Yep. Imagine a sandy-coloured hunter creeping silently through the tall grass, searching for its next meal. Today, we are travelling back in time to uncover the amazing history of cats.
SPEAKER_01I can't wait! How did a wild predator decide to move into our houses and become our best friend?
SPEAKER_00It's one of the greatest stories in history, and it starts with a whole lot of grain and a massive army of mice. Our story starts around 10,000 years ago, roughly 8,000 BCE, in a region called the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East. What was life like back then? Were there huge cities? Not exactly. Humans were fundamentally changing how they lived. Instead of constantly wandering to hunt, they started farming wheat and barley. And when you farm, you have to store thousands of pounds of extra grain for the winter.
SPEAKER_01Ew, wait, huge piles of stored grain? I bet that attracted a ton of rodents.
SPEAKER_00Exactly! Millions of house mice, scientifically known as Mus Musculus, smelled the food and moved right into the human villages. You could hear them scratching and squeaking in the walls.
SPEAKER_01And you know who loves eating mice?
SPEAKER_00Cats. Spot on! The African wildcat, a ten-pound feline with striped legs and sharp claws. Notice this all-you-can-eat mouse buffet.
SPEAKER_01So the cats just followed the mice right into the human towns?
SPEAKER_00Yes. The cats crept closer and closer. The humans realised the cats were protecting their precious winter food supply, so they let them stay.
SPEAKER_01That is so cool. It's like the cats domesticated themselves. They basically signed a peace treaty for free food.
SPEAKER_00They totally did. In fact, archaeologists dug up a 9,500-year-old grave in a Neolithic village on the island of Cyprus. They found a human carefully buried right next to a pet cat.
SPEAKER_01No way! 9,500 years ago. But wait, how did a wild cat get to an island?
SPEAKER_00Humans had to bring them on wooden boats. The grave was filled with beautiful polished stones and seashells. It proves that even way back then, humans loved their feline friends enough to take them across the sea. What happened next? Where exactly did cats go after that? They spread to ancient Egypt around 3,500 years ago. And the Egyptians didn't just like cats, they absolutely adored them. Oh, I know this! Didn't they have a whole cat goddess? They did! Her name was Bastet. She was a fierce, protective goddess, often shown with the head of a cat and the body of a woman. There was an entire city named Bubastus dedicated to her. A whole city? How many people lived there? Tens of thousands! And every year, up to 700,000 Egyptians would travel down the Nile River on boats just to attend a massive festival for Bastet. Imagine the sound of castanets, music and singing echoing across the water.
SPEAKER_01That sounds like the biggest party in history. Did they have strict laws about cats?
SPEAKER_00Extremely strict. If you accidentally harmed a cat, the punishment could be severe. And when a family's pet cat died of old age, it was a huge tragedy. What did they do to remember them? The Greek historian Herodotus wrote in 450 BCE that an entire family would shave off their eyebrows to show the world they were mourning their cat.
SPEAKER_01They shaved their eyebrows. That is the weirdest thing I've ever heard.
SPEAKER_00And they mummified them thin. In 1888, a farmer digging near the Egyptian village of Beni Hassan fell into a hidden underground tunnel. What was inside the tunnel? Over 200,000 mummified cats. Some were wrapped in beautiful linen ribbons, and others wore tiny bronze cat masks. Ew! Wait, what happened to all those mummies? In 1890, a ship took 19.5 tonnes of those ancient cat mummies to Liverpool, England, and sold them to farmers for fertiliser at just £4 a tonne.
SPEAKER_01Blair, that is absolutely disgusting. Using ancient cat mummies for farming.
SPEAKER_00Luckily, living cats were still treated like royalty, especially on ships. Sailors from Greece, Rome, and even Viking longships realised cats were the perfect crewmates. Let me guess. They needed them to catch rats on the water? Exactly! Rats would eat the ship's food and literally chew through the thick rigging ropes. Cats sailed all over the world, protecting the supplies. Are there any famous ship cats? Oh, the most famous is a World War II cat named Unsinkable Sam. In May 1941, he was on a massive 800-foot-long German battleship called the Bismarck when it sank in the Atlantic Ocean. Did the cat survive the battle? Yes. The British Navy found him floating on a wooden board amidst the smoke and waves. Angry but unharmed. They rescued him and put him on their own destroyer, the HMS Cossack. Wait, why is he called unsinkable Sam? Because the HMS Cossack was hit by a torpedo and sank just a few months later in October 1941. And Sam survived again. Then they transferred him to a giant aircraft carrier called the HMS Ark Royal. Don't tell me that one sank too. That would be terrible luck. It did! In November 1941, it went down too. And Unsinkable Sam survived all three shipwrecks. After that, the Navy decided he had seen enough action. He retired and lived a happy, quiet life in a sailor's home in Belfast.
SPEAKER_01That cat seriously had nine lives. Did everyone always love cats like the sailors did?
SPEAKER_00Actually, no. In the Middle Ages, around the year 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued a letter called Vox in Rama. For some reason, many people started fearing cats and avoiding them.
SPEAKER_01Aw, that's so sad. But wait, didn't chasing them away cause rats to spread the bubonic plague?
SPEAKER_00That's actually a historical myth. Most everyday people still kept cats around to catch mice. The Pope's letter was barely known at the time, so it didn't cause a massive cat shortage or the Black Death.
SPEAKER_01Phew, well, I'm glad we eventually realise cats are awesome and stopped chasing them away.
SPEAKER_00Me too. Today, cats are one of our absolute favourite companions, and they actually have some super weird abilities. Ooh! Like what? Hit me with the weird facts. Did you know a cat's purr has magical healing powers? Wait, seriously? Like real magic? How does that work? Science magic! Cats purr at a frequency between 25 and 140 Hz. That exact vibration has been proven to help heal broken bones and repair tissue faster.
SPEAKER_01That is basically a superpower. Do human doctors use that?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Cat purrs actually match the exact vibration frequencies NASA uses to help keep astronauts' bones healthy in zero gravity space. Also, did you know cats spend 70% of their entire lives sleeping?
SPEAKER_01I wish I could sleep that much. If a cat is 10 years old, it has been asleep for seven of those years.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And here's a funny history legend. The famous scientist Isaac Newton is often said to have invented the catflap. You know, the little door in the bottom of a regular door.
SPEAKER_01The guy who discovered gravity invented the cat door. Is that true?
SPEAKER_00It's just a myth. Catflaps actually existed hundreds of years before him. The writer Geoffrey Chaucer even mentioned them in the 1300s. And speaking of communication, adult cats never meow at other cats. Wait, really? Who do they meow at? They only meow to communicate with humans. Over 10,000 years, they developed a special sound just to talk to us. From wild desert hunters to internet superstars, cats really did conquer the world. Alright, Finn, it's quiz time! Let's see how much you and our listeners remember.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I'm ready. Bring on the history questions.
SPEAKER_00First question. In what country did archaeologists find a 9,500-year-old grave of a human buried with a pet cat? Next one. What was the name of the ancient Egyptian goddess who had the head of a cat? Question 3. How did families in ancient Egypt show they were mourning their pet cat? Here's number four. What was the name of the famous World War II cat who survived three different shipwrecks? Last question. What sound do adult cats only make for humans, but never for other cats? Great job! Let's see how you did. Here are the answers. The first answer is, they found the grave on the island of Cyprus. For question 2, the ancient Egyptian cat goddess was named Bastet. 3. The answer is, families would shave off their eyebrows to mourn their cats. Question 4. The famous cat was known as Unsinkable Sam. And the final answer is, adult cats only meow to talk to humans.
SPEAKER_01I still can't get over the fact that entire families shave their eyebrows. History is so weird and hilarious.
SPEAKER_00It really is. I just love that Unsinkable Sam survived three whole shipwrecks on the open ocean. What an incredibly brave kitty.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, cats are definitely way tougher than they look. And that fertiliser story was completely gross. Hey listeners!
SPEAKER_00If you loved learning about cats today, please leave us a five-star review. It helps us out a ton.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if you think Unsinkable Sam deserves five stars for surviving all those shipwrecks, just scroll down and tap the stars on your podcast app.
SPEAKER_00Oh, and don't forget to check out our site kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games and activities there to keep the history adventure going.
SPEAKER_01And if you want to shout out on the show or just want to say hi, email us at hello at kidopoly.com.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for exploring with us, McKenna, and everyone else. See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye, everyone.