Most recently, the Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy started to train felinologists. The section of zoology that studies cats and their breeds is relatively young – it is not even 140 years old. Cats were domesticated in Egypt a couple of thousand years before Christ and kept at home for many centuries, but that was it. A big cat enthusiast, the Englishman Harrison Weir changed everything. He went to his friend Mr. Wilkins, the manager of the Crystal Palace in London, and instead of playing cat and mouse with him, clearly expressed his idea – to show people all the diversity of the feline world. The idea was duly noted and creatively developed. On July 17, 1871, the world's first cat show was held at the Crystal Palace. So far, it was dedicated only to British cats. The rest of the world licked their lips with envy, but, although it was like herding cats, the friends opened not just European, but the world cat exhibition on December 27 of the same year. Now people did not have to take what the cat dragged in, but looked at the cats at the exhibition from all sides, compared the breeds and chose the very best. Then Harrison Weir went even further, and in 1887 registered the world's first club of cat lovers – the National Cat Club. By the way, exhibitions in the Crystal Palace were held annually until 1936 – they laid the foundations of cat breed standards. And then the Crystal Palace burned to the ground. Fortunately, the cat had been let out of the bag by that time, and cat – or rather, felinological – exhibitions have become quite popular. It a pity the palace was ruined, though.
