To David seligh, age 10, of Wichita, Kan., for his question:

Who had the first house cats?

The most ordinary house cat is a person of character. Everything about him is amazing, and he keeps his secrets to himself. The human family has known Mr. Mystery for ages, but even experts are not sure of all the details of his history.

The ancient Arabs had a story about the first pet cat. Noah, they said, had a problem. The cats and mice on his Ark multiplied too fast and became a pest. Noah asked the lioness to think of something helpful, and the queen of Beasts replied with a mighty sneeze. From this big Ach ach hoo came the first house cat or so the old Arabian legend says.

Experts, of course, do not believe this pussycat story. They demand facts and more facts to trace the cat back through human, history. Most of the facts lead us back to ancient Egypt. The people who lived in the Land of the Nile had pet house cats at least 5,000 years ago. They treasured them and treated them as members of the family. They could not understand their mysterious ways and thought that cats were sacred animals.

In ancient Egypt, the bodies of the dead were mummified and preserved in Elaborate tombs. When a pet cat died, his little body also was preserved and buried. Many thousands of these mummified cats have been found in old Egyptian graves. Some of these tombs date back to 2600 B.C. So WE know that the cat was a household pet at least 4,500 years ago, and the cats must have made friends with the human family long before this time.

Most experts agree that the house cat was the first wild animal to make friends with the human family. His ancestors were an assortment of small wild cats that lived freely in almost every land. Some of them adopted human families in India and China, in Persia and other lands. Maybe these people had pet cats before the Egyptians, but so far nobody has found any facts to prove it.

The cat was the first wild animal to become a human pet, but he never became as tame as the dog. He loves us and shares our homes, but he still has a secret life of his own. When he has to, he can leave us and make his own way in the wilds.

Miss Puss is a smart pet and very brave. She is a living example of neatness and a strict teacher of good manners. She expects polite kindness and repays it with loving affection. Otherwise, she refuses to be friendly. If she snarls and scratches you, she is telling you that you are not treating a pet as it should be treated.