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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Set" data-source="post: 4211993" data-attributes="member: 41584">Cats were used to watch the Pharoah's houseguests in Egypt.  Since it would be 'rude' to surround an invited quest or foreign ambassador to the palace with soldiers, they were instead brought to a bedroom with a pair of cats sleeping on the bed.  Once the 'guest' was ensconced in his chambers, he would be warned not to leave.  One cat would sleep near his head, the other near his feet (it was 'their room,' after all) and if he tried to leave they would start some unholy caterwauling and human guards would come running to see why the 'guest' was leaving his chambers in the middle of the night.That and they pretty much saved the Egyptian civilization from disease and famine, by keeping the granaries in the central cities free of rats.  Centralized granaries seemed like such a good idea at the time, until the rats discovered them...  Cats went from being a pest to having their own goddess!There are a lot of myths about cats being untrainable.  Dolphins also get amazingly good press, despite the fact that sharks have proven to be just as trainable (and even friendly, swimming over to be petted, which would freak me out...).  As for training cats to hunt, it's doable, assuming you like eating mice, moles, sparrows and other critters that can fit in your hand.  Many cats will go out and hunt on their own, and then leave dead animals as 'presents' for their owners, with no training at all!  It's what they are made to do, hunt and kill and bring back to the 'family,' only the 'family' now consists of those giant people who fill the catfood dish.The Church tried to demonize cats in the middle ages, portraying them as lazy creatures, and since they were doing their best to convince the peasants and serfs that working themselves to *death* to support the idle rich was the only righteous lifestyle choice that would get them to Heaven, any animal that didn't seem to be loyal and hard-working and willing to also work itself to death (or lie down and die next to it's master), was obviously an instrument of the Devil.  The great 'chain of being' demanded that animals be subservient to man, and so an animal that did not have pack instincts that prompted it to roll over and be obedient to humans it had been tricked into thinking it's 'pack leader,' was considered to be defying God's will by refusing to submit to human dominion.  (Just as peasants and serfs who refused to submit to the will of the nobles were similarly defying the Chain of Being and needed to be killed for standing against God's plan for them.)  Beating a disobedient animal (or peasant), even to death, was considered a righteous act.</blockquote>

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