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The cat (Felis catus) is a   of small  . It is the only domesticated species in the family  and is often referred to as the domestic cat to distinguish it from the wild members of the family. A cat can either be a house cat, a  or a ; the latter ranges freely and avoids human contact. Domestic cats are valued by humans for companionship and their ability to kill . About 60  are recognized by various .

The cat is similar in  to the other felid species: it has a strong flexible body, quick , sharp teeth and  adapted to killing small prey. Its  and sense of smell are well developed.  includes  like , , trilling, hissing,  and grunting as well as . A  that is most active at dawn and dusk (), the cat is a solitary hunter but a . It can hear sounds too faint or too high in  for human ears, such as those made by  and other small mammals. Cats also secrete and perceive .

Female domestic cats can have kittens from spring to late autumn, with litter sizes often ranging from two to five kittens. Domestic cats are bred and shown at events as registered , a hobby known as .  of cats may be effected by  and , but their proliferation and the abandonment of pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, contributing to the extinction of entire bird, mammal, and reptile species.

Cats were first domesticated in the  around 7500 BC. It was long thought that cat domestication began in , where  from around 3100 BC. As of 2021, there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats in the world. As of 2017, the domestic cat was the second-most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cats owned and around 42 million households own at least one cat. In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a cat with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cats as of 2020.