When you own a cat, it can often feel as though your pet is also your boss. A cat isn’t going to fawn over you, or debase itself for your affections, or be impressed when you feed it. And yet, despite this withholding, humans have welcomed cats into their hearts for millennia: the ancient Egyptians famously worshipped them; they travelled the world on Viking ships; and today they are some of the Internet’s best memes. But, in fact, as Abigail Tucker, the author of “The Lion in the Living Room,” explains, “You could see our relationship with cats as a series of cat-controlled takeovers.”
In this video, the latest installment in our “Obsessions” series, Tucker discusses the history of human-feline coexistence—a relationship in which the cats have always set the terms. She explains how “cats domesticated themselves”—essentially by choosing proximity to people as their survival strategy—and then proceeded to infect one in three humans on Earth with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which affects our behavior in ways that are still not entirely understood, although there is speculation that one of the symptoms might be an attraction to cats. Scientists estimate that there could be as many as a billion cats in the world, and their number continues to grow. So, if you feel like you live under your cat’s paw, you might as well get used to it. As Tucker says, “We’re never going to get control over these animals.”
Sourse: newyorker.com
