It is strange to think that the annoying cat that is purring around my feet is a cousin of the lions and the tigers in the jungle, but so she is. Big cats and little cats, their kinship is shown by the lithe, agile bodies, the sharp teeth so well adapted to tearing meat, the sharp curved claws, and the muzzle framed in spreading whiskers, which are characteristic of carnivores or flesh eating animals.

However long association with human beings has modified our cats. They have learned to love us when we are good to them, and to eat many things besides meat.

Domestic cats are very numerous, and they are found everywhere that people are. They are the pets of great men and of little children. They patrol storehouses, shops, homes, and public buildings, killing the mice and rats that would destroy our property.

Many of course, today, are couch potatoes -- however, much loved by their owners. They even give a touch of home to the most remote places, and although they hate water, they are great sea-goers. There is seldom a ship without its cat or cats.

Breeding pedigreed domestic cats has become quite a big business and fanciers have taken great pains to develop the fine points of the Persians or long-haired cats, the Manx or tail-less cats, and the Siamese cats, among others.

As a matter of fact, however, the common short-haired cats that we call alley cats are just as beautiful, in their own way, as any breed. They have perhaps a more distinguished ancestry than some of the more exotic cats. They are descended from the sacred cats of Egypt.

The first cats known in history were those ancient Egyptians obtained by catching and taming Kaffir (or caffre) cats, small wild cats that are native to Africa and Asia.

There is always something mysterious in cats, in their luminous eyes and aloof manner, and perhaps that is what led the Egyptians to worship them. Thousands of cat mummies in beautiful cases have been discovered in Egyptian grottoes, attesting to the honor in which these people held cats.

However, perhaps these cats grew tired of being worshiped, for many of them made their way through Gibraltar into England and Scotland, where they mated with native wild cats and produced the breed of short-hairs now so common in Europe and America.

Persians, also called Angoras, originated in Turkey, and were first brought to America by sailors as presents for their sweethearts and wives.

Maine coon cats are just Persians whose coats, in that cold climate, have grown exceptionally thick and coarse.

Sailors, too, brought the first tailless cats from the Isle of Man. There are many legends to account for the tailless cat.

One has it that warriors took the tails to adorn their helmets. Another says that cats loitered on their way into the Ark, and Noah, growing impatient, slammed the door shut on their tails.

The truth probably is that these cats are "sports," animals or plants that by a quirk of nature have been given a different character from others of the species, continued in the offspring.

The coloring of the cat's coat is one of its points of beauty. Siamese cats, which for a long time were the exclusive property of the kings and priests -- have their special colors, dark brown face, ears, legs and tail, on a pale fawn body, with deep blue eyes. There are also brown Siamese cats.

The Persians and the alley cats have many colors. There are white cats, black cats, yellow cats, maltese (blue or slate-colored) cats, and many others.

There are tortoise-shells, or three-colored cats, sometimes calico cats (which is the breed that is currently defying me by rolling back and forth on my pillow). The pure tortoise-shell coat, marked with well defined patches of black, orange, and cream is a characteristic of the female.

The male of this type is a red, or sandy cat. There have been rare instances of males with the tortoise-shell coat, but they are extremely rare. It is interesting that Barnum, the circus guru, once offered to pay a thousand dollars for a tortoise-shell male cat, but no one every brought him one.

There are Tabby cats with curious intricate markings. The name "tabby" has nothing to do with the sex of a cat. Tabby comes from Atab, a street in old Bagdad, where moire silk was made, what in the old days we sometimes called water silk.

The silk "atabi" (or taffeti, later, taffeta), and the markings on these cats were said to resemble the old style atabi silk.

Cats have extraordinarily keen senses, which are of great service in saving them from danger.

Their acute sense of smell warns them when an enemy is near, and often keeps them from eating doubtful food which a dog, more impulsive, would probably gobble up.

Cats hear more than twice as well as a normal human being, responding to sounds too faint for listening humans to catch.

It is the eyes of cats that are most wonderful. We've all seen cats dozing in the sunshine, the pupils of her eyes mere slits against the light.

We've also seen the pupils dilate (open) at some sudden fright, or at the approach of darkness, until covered almost the entire iris. It is this power of dilating the pupil that enables the cat to see farther in the dark than any other animal.

A cat's whiskers, too, are of considerable help in a night prowl. The whiskers, technically termed vibrissae, are equipped with special nerves, making them delicate organs of perception. The saying that a cat will not venture through a hole whose sides brush its whiskers is not without some truth.

The number of uses to which a cat puts its paws, besides walking on them and washing its face with them is astonishing.

They are better weapons in a fight than a dog's paws, for cats keep their claws from war by retracting them when walking, while the dogs claws are blunted by their contact with the ground.

Cats keep their claws effective by sharpening them on the trunk of a tree, or perhaps on our couches and chairs. In times of peace they conceal their claws and walk softly on the pads of their feet.

Normal cats have five toes on each fore-foot and four on each hind foot, each with its pad, and a large pad in the center of each foot. It is not uncommon, however, to see a cat with six toes on each forefoot. Cats, by the way, perspire through the pads of the feet, and not through the skin of the body as humans do.

A cat that falls or springs from a height, great or small, generally manages to fall on its feet. That we all know.

We do not mean to say that every cat could fall from a height and always land safely on its feet. However, in general a cat has this ability. This wonderful feat is made possible by the way the muscles of the cat are arranged and the quickness of the cat's instinct for bringing them into play.

No matter how a cat is dropped, it is usually able to turn over in the air and so twist itself that its feet come in contact with the ground first.

The ability of the cat to alight feet first is aided by the healthy condition of its balancing sense. This sense is governed by the semicircular canals -- six little fluid-bearing canals, three in each ear -- that enable cats (and humans) to keep in balance.

However, if they played any special part in the wonderful feat of the cat we should expect to find these balancing canals very highly developed in cats. However, they are not.

As a matter of fact, they do not appear to be so perfect in the cat as in man, and neither man nor cat has them so beautifully organized as the bird. We cannot say that there is any particular quality in the cat's balancing sense alone to account for its exceptional ability. The power seems to be instinctive, arising from ages and ages of practicing this special art.

Scientists say that men also would be able to alight on their feet when falling if they could think quickly enough. Some do. Many of us have seen men dive head-foremost from a trapeze, turn somersaults in the air and land safely.

Others vault over the backs of horses, whirling around in midair as they go -- yet drop safely on their feet. All these skills are perfected by much practice so that they become almost instinctive. So that leads to the question -- could it be that cats are quicker thinking than man?