Domestic Cat

The domestic cat is a cosmopolitan species and occurs across much of the world. It is adaptable and now present on all continents except Antarctica, and on 118 of the 131 main groups of islands, even on the remote Kerguelen Islands. Due to its ability to thrive in almost any terrestrial habitat, it is among the world's most invasive species. It lives on small islands with no human inhabitants. Feral cats can live in forests, grasslands, tundra, coastal areas, agricultural land, scrublands, urban areas, and wetlands. The unwantedness that leads to the domestic cat being treated as an invasive species is twofold. As it is little altered from the wildcat, it can readily interbreed with the wildcat. This hybridization poses a danger to the genetic distinctiveness of some wildcat populations, particularly in Scotland and Hungary, possibly also the Iberian Peninsula, and where protected natural areas are close to human-dominated landscapes, such as Kruger National Park in South Africa. However, its introduction to places where no native felines are present also contributes to the decline of native species.

The cat is an obligate carnivore and has adapted to a low-fibre highly digestible meat diet. Cats have fewer enzymes capable of metabolising carbohydrates compared to omnivores. The cat lacks the ability to convert carotenoids to vitamin A; has an inability to synthesise enough vitamin D; inability to synthesise niacin from tryptophan; inability to synthesise cysteine, citrulline, and methionine; lacks glucokinase activity; and an intolerance to glutamic acid (which is low in animal tissue and high in plant matter). Taurine and arginine are essential for cats. Due to the inability to synthesise adequate amounts of citrulline a single meal lacking in arginine can be fatal to a cat. Cats cannot produce enough taurine and require dietary taurine; a lack of taurine will cause a cat to develop dilated cardiomyopathy. Commercial cat diets historically were lacking in taurine and dilated cardiomyopathy was a common issue until it was linked to taurine deficiency in a 1987 study.

The origin of the English word cat, Old English catt, is thought to be the Late Latin word cattus, which was first used at the beginning of the 6th century. The Late Latin word may be derived from an unidentified African language. The Nubian word kaddîska 'wildcat' and Nobiin kadīs are possible sources or cognates. The forms might also have derived from an ancient Germanic word that was absorbed into Latin and then into Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. The word may be derived from Germanic and Northern European languages, and ultimately be borrowed from Uralic, cf. Northern Sámi gáđfi 'female stoat', and Hungarian hölgy 'lady, female stoat'; from Proto-Uralic *käďwä 'female (of a furred animal)'. The English puss, extended as pussy and pussycat, is attested from the 16th century and may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from Low German puuskatte, related to Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt. Similar forms exist in Lithuanian puižė and Irish puisín or puiscín. The etymology is unknown, but it may be an onomatopoeia from using a sound to attract a cat. A male cat is called a tom, tommy or tomcat (or a gib, if neutered). A female is called a queen (or sometimes a molly, if spayed). Some sources write that queen refers solely to unspayed cats that are in an estrous cycle. …