Vital Pet Health

Just as the African grain stores and the Egyptian temples had been key to the cat’s transformation, so were the ships of the Phoenicians.

These people were great sea traders sailing all around Europe in boats propelled by galley slaves. One of their great strengths was realising that cats were as vital to successful seafaring as cooperative oarsmen. Not only would rats and mice on board a ship devour and contaminate food stocks but they would also gnaw wood – a frightening prospect in a wooden boat.

Between 1200 and 800 BC these ships took cats all around the Mediterranean and beyond and by 500 BC cats were well established in southern Europe and traders were taking them on journeys to and from China and Japan where they were invaluable in protecting silkworm cocoons from rats. It was in Rome that the cat had its first taste of luxury as a pampered pet while the mongoose was sent out to work catching vermin. As the Roman Empire came to prominence cats hitched a ride again to even more countries, including England, where feline footprints on clay tiles date back to 4 AD. Then as time passed travel and exploration took ship’s cats across the Atlantic to America and down under to New Zealand and Australia with the first colonists.