# why is my cat Oscar born like he was **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-cat-oscar-born-like-he-was/656189 "2013-04-20T04:29:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-cat-oscar-born-like-he-was/656189/21 "2013-04-22T18:10:33Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > One hypothesis is that granaries attracted rodents, which then attracted wild cats. Humans appreciated the cats protecting the grain, and so did things to encourage the cats to stick around. I don’t think that’s what they meant by cat breeding. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-cat-oscar-born-like-he-was/656189/22 "2013-04-22T18:16:42Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > One hypothesis is that granaries attracted rodents, which then attracted wild cats. Humans appreciated the cats protecting the grain, and so did things to encourage the cats to stick around. Good point. Wildcats might not be attracted to the kind of food that hunter-gatherers would have, since many types of (wild) cats dont’ scavenge and eat only what they can kill themselves. > [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > I don’t think that’s what they meant by cat breeding. I don’t think he was speaking to that. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-cat-oscar-born-like-he-was/656189/23 "2013-04-22T18:28:04Z")
> [@e.fred](#): > > What did they breed the African wildcat with to make housecats look like they do. Did they find a midget leopard or tiger? While the domestic house cat is not closely related to any of the Great Cats, as it turns out genetic work has shown that the house-cat sized [Jaguarundi](http://www.wildearthguardians.org/images/content/pagebuilder/12726.jpg) is essentially a pygmy version of the [Puma](http://gothunts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Mountain-Lion-Biology-and-Behavior.jpg) (or maybe the Puma is a giant Jaguarundi). ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-cat-oscar-born-like-he-was/656189/24 "2013-04-22T18:46:00Z")
One thing that I have heard (yeah, not a good source) is that the Ancient Egyptians discovered that cats were better at protecting stored grain than dogs. If you got a dog and put him in your silo or warehouse, he could get into the grain and eat away your profit. If you had a cat, the cat didn’t care about the grain and would happily eat mice all day. ---
**Author:** ![Carryon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-cat-oscar-born-like-he-was/656189/25 "2013-04-22T19:31:52Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > One hypothesis is that granaries attracted rodents, which then attracted wild cats. Humans appreciated the cats protecting the grain, and so did things to encourage the cats to stick around. Bingo, I grew up on a farm and we did that with Owls. Between our barn cats and owls you had any rodent problem under control. You never could kill all the mice but you had it down to a level where it didn’t matter. I miss owl boxes and the barn owls. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-cat-oscar-born-like-he-was/656189.md?page=1)