Section D It seems that there is no middle ground when it comes to cats. People either love them or hate them. These feelings are not new either. All through history, cats have been worshiped or hated. A study of ancient writings and evidence found in tombs indicates that for the past 5,000 years, cats have been kept as pets in China, Arabia, Egypt, and India. However, this isn’t very long compared to dogs, which have been domesticated for 50,000 years. Still, while the period in which cats have been domesticated may be quite short, it has definitely had its high and low points. Cats were at their positions of domesticated life in ancient Egypt. There were more cats living in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs than any other place in the world since that time. This high number of cats was probably due to the laws protecting them as holy animals. If anyone was caught killing a cat, the person could be put to death. Families in Egypt also mourned the death of a cat and had the body of the dead cat wrapped in cloth before it was finally laid to rest. This respect for cats carried over to the Roman Empire where cats were the only animals allowed into temples. This fact was probably because of the ability of cats to keep the temples free of mice and rats. With the coming of the Dark Ages in Europe, the place of cats in society took a turn for the worse. Because they were associated so closely with the“old religions" of Egypt and the Roman Empire,Christians began to associate cats with pagan beliefs. (74) Cats had a reputation as helpers of witches. When a person was accused of being a witch, a cat would often be put on trial with the person. The cat would be tortured to try and make the person tell the truth, and usually the cat and the person would end up being burned in a bonfire or drowned. Bonfires of collected cats were not uncommon during this time. The days of hunting witches have ended, but other myths about cats still hold out. For a while, people in some places used to bury live cats under new buildings for good luck. As well, many people today continued to believe that black cats bring bad luck. If a black cat walks in front of a person, that person must take extra care in the near future to watch out for dangerous situations. (75) Regardless of superstition, cats remain a popular pet today. Some cat experts believe that a cat can never truly be domesticated because it may turn wild and run away at any time. How. ever, this claim has not put people off keeping cats in their homes. A third of homes in the United States have cats, and one out of every three of these homes keeps both a dog and a cat. Especially in large cities, many people in small apartments have found that cats make much better pets than dogs. What percentage of American homes keeps both a cat and a dog