Cat Tales: A History

by Jerry D. Moore

Feared, revered and respected, cats have left an indelible pawprint on the histories and civilizations of humankind. In Britain a third of all households have a cat, as of 2021, some 45 million American households owned one or more cats, making them one of the most popular pets in the world. Over the last two million years, cats and people have interacted in diverse and unexpected ways, but the predecessors of your furry friend were predators, not pets.

Here, for the first time, the path from deadly enemy to improbable roommate is set out through an archaeological lens by Professor of Anthropology Jerry Moore. Starting with the terrifying prehistorical scimitar-toothed cat of the Pliocene and the lion drawings of the Palaeolithic Chauvet caves, Moore journeys through our complicated history with these charismatic creatures. He travels along the Nile and across the Mediterranean, sailing on to South America, exploring pet cemeteries, cat mummies and exquisite statuary across continents and centuries.

However, our attempts to bring cats in from the cold have not always had happy endings, as Moore explores through such famous feline fanciers as Joe Exotic, Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn. Combining incredible archaeological finds with contemporary media, Cat Tales surveys ancient and modern interactions between humans and cats, wild and domestic, to ask a simple but profound who domesticated whom?

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Cats, Animals

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 23, 2025

About the author

Jerry D. Moore is an anthropological archaeologist and professor of anthropology at California State University Dominguez Hills, California. His research interests focus on cultural landscapes, the archaeology of architecture, and human adaptations on the north coast of Peru and northern Baja California.

He is the author of Architecture and Power in the Prehispanic Andes: The Archaeology of Public Buildings (1996), Cultural Landscapes in the Prehispanic Andes: Archaeologies of Place (2005), Visions of Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists (2012), the 2014 SAA Book Award winner A Prehistory of Home, thirty-five peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and sixty-seven professional papers.

Reviews

[Adrian Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title should read 'Cat Tales: An Archeology'. I was disappointed that this is not a history of mankind's relationship with the domestic cat. It is series of archeological accounts of mankind's relationship with felidae, drawn together with the notion that cats, whether we have treated them like gods or vermin, have always been a charismatic species for homo sapiens. My hardcover was beautifully illustrated throughout, well made on heavy paper. Reading it was as much a sensual experience as a literary one, which seems appropriate for a book about cats. I'm not sure I find big cats as charismatic as my little kitties, Csalamádé or Csokis Muffin, and I'm still looking out for a history about them.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly about humans and not enough about cats.

[Deke Moulton · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed this book, I certainly skipped around a little bit.

This book almost feels like it lacks a little from having no strong idea of what it is trying to do, very much like a cat, it meanders wherever it wants.

The first chapter is very interesting and talks about fossil evidence that shows that hominids were once hunted by cats, but then the second chapter is more of the same. It is a little frustrating because the book very much relies on evidence, but not to prove itself, but to disprove itself? Like, it argues that one species of wild feline is the ancestor of all domestic cats. But then it goes on for 10 pages explaining every other wild cat that is similar in size that could’ve been a candidate for domesticated cats and why it couldn’t be an ideal domesticated pet like why???? I literally do not need to know that. It’s just over information.

But then a chapter will veer suddenly into modern day stray cat colonies, before slingshotting back into an ancient Egypt. But not even so much on ancient Egypt and how they viewed cats (literally never mentioning that the first named pet cat that we have is from ancient Egypt or anything like that not using any of the numerous poems that we have about cats or even a lot of information on the cat goddesses,) no, the entire chapter is mostly about how Europeans bought cat mummies in the 19th century and use them for fertilizer in Europe.

I suppose like a cat this book menders wherever it likes, but it was a little disappointing in that it didn’t tell me things I really wanted to know, but instead spent a lot of time explaining things that didn’t relate. I suppose the subtitle “how we live with them” is accurate, but if you want a pure history on the cat, this might not give you what you were hoping to read.

[Ernest Spoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

That humans have been fascinated by cats for untold thousands of years goes without saying. Imagine venerating an animal capable of killing and eating you as a god. Well, we did, and do. As I read this look at human-feline interactions over the millennia, my constant cat companion, Samhain, contentedly slept on my lap. And unlike the earliest cats who domesticated themselves in Egypt and the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea while finding easy hordes of tasty mice to ea thousands of years ago, her primary function is to keep my lap warm. She is the most domesticated cat I've ever been associated with, like Simon's Cat made flesh. Her predecessor, Misty who died at age 22 after living with me 18 years, was Xena, Warrior Prince. Personality-wise two cats could not be more different. And I love them both.

By the way, both the girls are rescue cats. They were so named when they moved in. They answered to those names, so no need to change.

[Zachary Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The premise of the book is the history of cats, but as Jerry Moore so artfully shows, it isn’t as simple as that. Touching on nearly every continent, and all that house a felidae, the book captures a truly amazing story. One about the intertwined relationship of cats big and small, to the development and progress of humans from our very beginnings. Although you come for a history of cats, you get a truly lighthearted, well written, and often funny story of humans and cats living side by side for thousands of years. Most of all, you can tell that Moore thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing this excellent work.

[Jon B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

a very interesting, very thorough and thoughtful archaeological look at the way humanity and various feline species have interacted and evolved with each other. I think I would have, if I could suggest, liked to read about human/feline historical interactions in Mongolian and Chinese areas, but truly was fascinated by the look at South and Central America and Mexico, and while this was not what I initially thought it would be about, ultimately I was captured by the scope and knowledge of the author.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gonna be honest, DNF for me. Maybe I'll pick it up later on but my brain can not handle a science heavy book right now.
I was expecting something like some historical references of the human-cat relationship. Not necessarily a deep dive into the paleontology and archeology study of the evolution of felines and humans.
I'm sure it's very well researched and well written but my brain can't get into it right now.

[Michelle Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book! Archeology meets cats of all sizes meets a history of the world… each chapter was a joyful shift in a new direction and somehow it flowed seamlessly and told a beautiful story… and the random jokes/nerd references mixed in were a delight!

[Trixi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting archaeological/historical look at cats.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I certainly learned a lot about human history and cats! I will never look at my little kitty the same.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected. Largely about archeology and humans and not much about cats

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is an interesting book, it is more a book about humanity, that also has cats, and while I enjoyed the human history aspect, I really wanted a cat book.

[Rebecca Libersat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not entirely what I was expecting, but what I got was fascinating! The author is an archaeologist, so in a way this is more of a prehistory--one of the few things I've read about cats that considers how we got here (here being trapped under my purring fluffball as I read) from a starting point of early hominins being the prey of really big cats.