On Domesticated Animal Ancestry

About a week ago, I adopted a puppy, who eventually came to be known as Kate.

She's likely a Spanador -- part Labrador Retriever, part Cocker Spaniel.  As with all domesticated dogs, she's descended from the gray wolf, so she definitely has badass flowing through her veins.

• Wolf_Kolmården.jpg: Daniel Mott from Stockholm, Sweden
• derivative work: Mariomassone

 While Kate is definitely an adorable puppy, this is really not the point of this blog post.  Since dogs came from wolves, I was hoping that domesticated cats came from an equally badass ancestor, like a tiger.

I was a bit disappointed to learn that the common ancestor to all housecats is a wildcat that looks like a housecat, but with pointy ears -- the African Wildcat.

African Wild Cat, photographed, by Sonelle, at the Johannesburg Zoo, South Africa.

You'd probably have to go back further in time for the common ancestor for both big cats and the aforementioned wild tabby.  Well...tough break, kitty.  (Then again, pointy wild kitty is probably a badass, too.)