APDG ~ National Cat Day - 10/29

Did any of you know that October 29th is National Cat Day? Well, yes it is!

National Cat Day gives you the opportunity to .... you guessed it......do something nice for a cat!

National Cat Day, which is observed on the 29th of October in the U.S., is a holiday on which people take the time to appreciate their cats. However, it’s not just a day when people treat their feline friends to a good day, but it’s also a holiday that attempts to shed light on the millions of cats who are abandoned and end up in shelters every year. This is a day that’s been observed since 2005, and we find that to be quite surprising. After all, cats have been domesticated by humans for at least the past 12,000 years, so you would think that they would have had a day of their own a lot sooner than the turn of the 21st century.

National Cat Day was initially created by Colleen Page in 2005. Colleen Page was an animal welfare advocate who wanted to create a day to help people recognize just how many cats were abandoned each year and need to be rescued. She also wanted to create a day that shows people the kind of unconditional love and companionship they can receive from a cat. And in both of those instances, we think that she succeeded in her goals.

Cats are the only domesticated species in the Felidae family and scientists believe that cats were domesticated about 9,500+ years ago. It’s believed that the earliest domestication of a cat was of an African wildcat in southern Cyprus. The remains of a Neolithic grave in Shillourokambos provide evidence for such a theory.

Since Cyprus likely had no native mammals on it, the humans who lived there may have brought the cat, as well as other wild animals, to the island from the mainland of the Middle East. Of course, this does beg the question: why did cats get domesticated in the first place? To determine that we have to find out why African wildcats were attracted to human settlements in the first place.

Some scientists believe that human agriculture in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East attracted rodents—especially the small house mouse—and with the rodents African cats were attracted to the settlements as well. In this arrangement, both humans and cats would benefit. The cats would have access to rodents and whatever scraps they received from humans, and the humans would have their rodent problem solved. As human settlements spread across the region, so did the domestication and distribution of domestic cats.

In 1200 B.C., Carthaginian, Etruscan, Greek, and Phoenician traders would introduce these domestic cats to Southern Europe. Around 1000 B.C., they were introduced to Corsica and Sardinia. By the end of the fall of the Roman Empire, Egyptian domestic cats could also be found in northern Germany.

As these cats were domesticated, they went through some gradual and minor changes in their behavior and anatomy. However, it should also be noted that some of the characteristics that they already had made them suitable for selection for domestication. For example, they were smaller than other wild cats and were more social. As humans domesticated they took on a variety of other traits that were refined over the years and vary from region to region.

During the Middle Ages, striped and blotched coat markings started appearing in domesticated tabby cats. The gene responsible for producing this coat goes back all the way to Southwest Asia during the Ottoman Empire. It would later become common in Africa and throughout Europe.

However, it wouldn’t be until the 1700s that these markings on tabby cats would become common enough that they would begin to be associated with house cats. During the 19th century, breeders would begin to selectively breed certain types of cats to make one of the hundreds of cat breeds that exist to this day.

Celebrating this day is as easy as doing something nice for your cat, for your neighbor’s cat, or your favorite animal welfare organization. For example, you can adopt a cat from a shelter on this day, buy your cat a fun new toy or treats, assist an elderly person by cleaning out their cat box, hire a photographer to take a picture of your cat, or spend some time volunteering at a local cat shelter. Any of these things are great ways to celebrate the cat and its contribution to us humans. What are you going to do on National Cat Day? Let everyone know by using the hashtag #NationalCatDay on your social media accounts.

Next onto our swap:

Post THREE (3) pictures and/or gifs to each of your THREE (3) partner's profiles with the theme "National Cat Day" and/or cats. The pictures that you choose may be the SAME OR DIFFERENT between all of your partners. Please choose pictures that you think THEY will enjoy!

Only people with well filled out profiles may participate in this swap. I will be checking the night before partners get assigned.

If you get 3 pictures from your partner on "National Cat Day" and/or cats you have to rate them a 5. The heart on the rating is for if you like what they sent.

To leave a photo on someone's profile use this code ! [ ] ( Put image address here ) With NO spaces & paste the picture's link between the curved parentheses.

Practice on your own profile first to be sure it looks good because you can easily delete there.

Pick images that are size 300 wide or smaller to be sure they fit. I go to Google images to get my pictures.

Hover over images to see their size because there will be some larger sizes there too. If you really like something click on it and go to the words SEARCH BY IMAGE and click on that. THEN go to the word SMALL and see if there is one 300 size. There are other tricks in the group thread; AN EASY way to get a small PIC from a BIG one;-)

You can find moving pictures at http://giphy.com/

Please write the TITLE OF THE SWAP ON YOUR PROFILE DECO MESSAGE too! This makes it easier for partners that are in a lot of these swaps to rate it.

Any problems, feel free to contact me.

I want to thank @anrtist for allowing me to borrow SOME of her wording.