Learning about the origins of a house cat

We all know that dogs were domesticated from wolves, but have you ever wondered where our cats came from? Well, I did at least. From a few different google searches I think I learned something about it.

Todays house cat, or domesticated cat, or felis silvestris catus, are all decedents of 5 different wildcat subspecies. These subspecies originated in Sardinia, Europe, central Asia, subsaharan Africa, and the Chinese desert.

These wildcats would start to hang around human settlements, just like our feral cats today, to catch mice. Humans don't like mice, therefore the cats were encouraged to stick around. When people started traveling from their native lands the cats followed (or were brought along, whatever). Genetic analysis shows that that our domestic house cats were derived from at least 5 founder cats that were in the Fertile Crescent, where humans had traveled for fertile land.

http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/cat.htm

Here are the ancestors of your cat. 

Sicilian Wildcat

African Wildcat

European Wildcat

Chinese Desert Cat.
(There aren't too many pictures of these guys,
it was between this and one that looked scared shitless.)

Central Asian Wildcat

All of these wild kitties created my derp-eyed creature. Thanks, wildcats.