29. Kitten — Do cats think they’re royalty? The domesticated cat or housecat has been associated with humans for at least the last 9,500 years and is currently the most popular pet in the world. Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal. In 2004, the earliest known location of cat domestication was discovered to be ancient Cyprus, and a subsequent study in 2007 found that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run through as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats circa 8000 BC, in the Near East. We’ve been placing cats on a pedestal for a long time!