It was a chilly day with a light rain, so the cats in the harbor were gathering in the waiting room.

Cats have mingled with human life since at least 6,000 years BC, from the skeletons of cats on the island of Cyprus. Ancient Egyptians from 3,500 BC have used cats to keep rats or other rodents away from barns where crops were stored. Today, cats are one of the most popular pets in the world. Cats whose lineages are officially recorded as purebred cats or pure breeds, such as the Persian, Siamese, Manx, and Sphinx. Cats like this are usually bred in official pet farms. The number of purebred cats is only 1% of all cats in the world, the rest are cats with mixed breeds such as wild cats or domestic cats.