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The domestic cat (Felis catus or Felis silvestris catus) is a small, usually furry, domesticated, and carnivorous mammal. It is often called the housecat when kept as an indoor pet, or simply the cat when there is no need to distinguish it from other feilds and felines. Cats are often valued by humans for companionship and their ability to hunt vermin and household pests.

Cats are similar in anatomy to the other felids, with strong, flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey. Cat senses fit a crepuscular and predatory ecological niche. Cats can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by mice and other small animals. They can see in near darkness. Like most other mammals, cats have poorer color vision and a better sense of smell than humans.

Despite being solitary hunters, cats are a social species, and cat communications includes the use of a variety of vocalizations (mewing, purring, trilling, hissing,growling and grunting) as well as cat pheremones, and types of cat-specific body launguige.

Cats have a rapid breeding rate. Under controlled breeding, they can be bred and shown as registered pedigree pets, a hobby known as cat fancy. Failure to control the breeding of pet cats by neutrating, and the abandoment of household pets, has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, requiring population control.Since cats were cult animals in Ancient  Eygept, they were commonly believed to have been domesticated there, but there may have been instances of domestication as early as the Neolithic from around 9500 years ago (7500 BC).

A genetic study in 2007 concluded that domestic cats are descended from African Wildats (Felis silvestris lybica) c. 8000 BC, in the Near East. Cats are the most popular pet in the world, and are now found in almost every place where humans live.