Domestic Cat

The domestic cat (*Felis catus*) is a felid. It appears that the domestic cat was first domesticated around 9,500 years ago in the Near East from the African wildcat. They are among the most popular of the domestic pets, kept for companionship, showing and also for practical uses such as pest control. Because of their links with man, they now live on every continent except Antarctica and also live on many oceanic islands, especially in feral colonies.

## Appearances in Dorling Kindersley Vision media

The domestic cat is the second most commonly-appearing species in Dorling Kindersley Vision programmes, with appearances in 34 episodes.

### See How They Grow

The growth of a kitten is the subject of one of the segments in the See How They Grow episode Pets.

### Eyewitness

A total of eight episodes of Eyewitness contain a domestic cat. Season three has the most episodes, with five altogether. Season one has two episodes, while season two has just a single episode.

* **SEASON ONE**: Cat, Dog
* **SEASON TWO**: Mammal
* **SEASON THREE**: Sight, Island, Mountain, Monster, Life

Domestic cats mainly appear in the Cat episode, with a domestic cat serving as the episode's primary hero. In Cat and Life, the domestic cat appears as both studio and stock footage. In Sight, they only appear as stock footage while in the other five episodes they appear only in studio-filmed footage.

While Mammal is the only second season episode to contain domestic cats, they play an important role as one of the heroes - a mother cat and her litter of kittens are one of six heroes in this episode.

Eyewitness Cat is also the main episode to look at breeds of domestic cat, several of which make on-screen appearances. These include the Persian, Siamese, Birman, Russian blue, red self and Manx cats.

A companion game to the series, Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Cat, was themed on both domestic and wild species of cats. A domestic cat filmed for the episode was one of the animals that could sometimes be found walking the corridors of the Eyewitness Museum in this game.

### Amazing Animals

A total of twenty-one episodes of Amazing Animals contain a domestic cat. Season four has the most episodes, with seven altogether. Season one and three both have five episodes, while season two has four episodes.

* **SEASON ONE**: Nighttime Animals, Animal Appetites, Animal Senses, Mini-Beasts, Animal Babies
* **SEASON TWO**: Scary Animals, Animal Mothers, Animal Pets, Animal Families
* **SEASON THREE**: Animal Hunters, Rainforest Animals, Farm Animals, Animal Changes, Animal Eggs
* **SEASON FOUR**: Around the World, Clever Animals, Backyard Animals, Tiny Animals, Scaly Animals, River Animals, Animal Flight

Across the four seasons, cats appear only as studio-filmed footage in twelve episodes, only in stock footage in six episodes and in a mixture of both stock and studio footage in three episodes.

The domestic cat was awarded the silver medal in the Golden Gecko Awards for Animal Pets.

### Creatures Fantastic

Of the recovered episodes of Creatures Fantastic, the domestic cat appears in two. They are a major focus in Mythical Cats, which looks at their veneration in ancient Egypt as well as later showing how they were persecuted for being the familiars of witches. The episode ends by saying that the cat has shed much of its former mythology.

Cat also appear in Creatures of the Night, again looking at their persecution as the familiars of witches. In both of these episodes, the cat is represented both by studio-filmed and stock footage.

### Baby Animals

In both episodes of Baby Animals, a kitten named Bungie is one of the leads. In the On The Farm episode, Bungie searches for two of the five baby animals while in the From The Wild episode she searches for three of the five animals.