Cats are as smart as dogs but neither cats or dogs are smarter than one another.
Cats and dogs both possess different types of intelligence, and dogs have twice as many neurons in their cerebral cortex as cats do, which suggests that dogs have a greater capacity for doing complex tasks and reasoning.
And cats tend to excel in independent problem solving and spatial memory.
Dogs are also often more trainable and more socially adept as a result of their long history of domestication and their strong drive to please, and cats are skilled, independent hunters with remarkable short term memory for their survival relevant information.
Cats and dogs can also get along with each other and become friends.
Cats originated in the Middle East's Fertile Crescent, around 10,000 years ago.
Domesticated cats that originated in the Middle East's Fertile Crescent around 10,000 years ago, originated as wildcats were drawn to the abundant rodent populations around early human agricultural settlements.
And the earliest evidence of human and cat companionship is a 9,500 year old burial of a human with a cat on the island of Cyprus, which indicates transportation by boat.
The domestication of cats we know today was a mutually beneficial although not fully intentional process.
And early farmers stored grain, which also attracted rodents like mice and rats and the rodents in turn attracted wild cats who ate them.
And the availability of prey near human settlements also likely led to cats becoming accustomed to humans.
A 9,500 year old burial in Cyprus also shows a human and a cat buried together, and the cat's presence suggests that the cat was brought to the island by boat.
Genetic analysis also confirms that domestic cats also descended from the Near Eastern wildcat "Felis silvestris lybica".
Cats also spread with humans along trade routes and they were also very useful on ships that were transporting of grain from the Near East.
Cats, in the family of Felidae also first appeared in Asia around 10 to 15 million years ago, with their evolutionary radiation beginning in Asia during the Miocene epoch.
Modern domestic cats, although originated from the Near Eastern wildcat subspecies, "Felis Silvestris lybica" and were first domesticated around 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, which is a region in the Middle East.