Cats are kept for companionship and to hunt mice and rats?. Farms often have dozens of cats, living semi-wild in the barns. Hunting in the barns and the fields, they kill and eat rodents that would otherwise eat large parts of the grain crop. (Many pet cats successfully hunt and kill mice by instinct, but may not eat their prey.)
There are many named breeds of cat, but their physiology differs less than that between breeds of dog.
The wild ancestor of the cat is believed to be from a desert climate, and cats display behaviours associated with such creatures. They enjoy heat and sunning themselves. Their feces is usually very dry and they prefer to bury it in sandy places. They are able to stay unmoving in one place for long periods of time, usually when observing prey.
Calico cats have multiple colors. American bicolor cats have two colors. A tabby cat is a striped domestic cat.
A male cat is usually called a tom cat, a female cat is called a queen. A young cat is called a kitten.
Taxonomic classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata?
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Catus?
Species: Felis?
Subspecies: Domesticus?