Thanks to Joe for taking over our channel for this pawsome video - and let us know how

many famous internet cats you recognized in it.

If you dig dogs instead, follow me over to Joe's channel It's Okay To Be Smart, where

we help him sniff out the story of humans' REAL best friend.

Make sure to subscribe while you're there!

"Hi, I’m Joe from “It’s OK to be Smart,” and today, I’m doing a special collaboration

with my friends from MinuteEarth.

If you lined up the world population of domestic cats, that kitty conga-line would wrap nearly

6 times around the planet.

Meow-a-days there’s around 85 million pet cats in the U.S. alone.

How did cats become the grumpy, laser chasing keyboard enthusiasts we know today… and

what role did humans play in their trans-fur-mation?

It all started around 11 million years ago in Asia with a cat that looked something like

this.

We think this ancestor of modern cats traveled far and wide in search of food and mates - an

instinct shared across the feline family.

Single pumas have been known to patrol nearly 1000 square kilometers - that’s as big an

area as 200,000 American football fields.

That urge to roam drove early cats over land bridges into new worlds, and species diverged,

many of which we’d recognize today.

It was the smaller wildcats - at least the ones that survived big upheavals, like a changing

climate and the onslaught of a certain pesky primate - that eventually became our first

feline friends.

As we moved away from hunter-gatherer ways and put down roots, food piled up, and this

brought other animals – like rodents – to the table, and cats came strollin’ in after

them.

Don’t let those big eyes fool you, felines are murder machines - they’re more successful

hunters than almost any other predator!

And those hunting instincts would have been a big help to our ancestors.

Cats that ate rodents – but didn’t eat children – got to stick around.

People began getting attached to cats.

In fact, a child and cat were buried together in a 9,500-year-old grave in Cyprus.

Cats weren’t quite getting attached to humans, though.

They retained their urge to roam, and their killer instinct, and still pretty much looked

like their wild cousins.

But they were changing.

House cats can digest plant matter better than wildcats, helping them make meals of

human scraps.

What’s more, recent changes in genes influencing how cats respond to fear make domestic kitties

friendlier than wildcats – even if we still can’t exactly train them.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped cats as incarnations of a goddess, and many of us take a hieroglyph

from their tablet today.

Cats may have even learned to demand our attention.

In the wild, all kittens meow to mom.

But once she stops listening, they move on to other sounds.

But house cats never leave their adoring “mothers,” so the kitten call continues.

So how did ferocious felines become purr-fect pets for millions of us around the world?

It all started with the cat, who ate the rat, who ate the grain, that lay in the hut that

our ancestors built.

Hey, it's Kate!

Thanks to Joe for taking over our channel for this pawsome video - and let us know how

many famous internet cats you recognized in it.

If you dig dogs instead, follow me over to Joe's channel It's Okay To Be Smart, where

we help him sniff out the story of humans' REAL best friend.

Make sure to subscribe while you're there!