Outnumbering dogs by roughly three to one worldwide, cats have been the world's most popular pet for a long time, but right now, in particular, they seem to be enjoying a golden era — possibly their most golden since the days of ancient Egypt, 3,000 years ago, when they were worshipped as gods. Even the most cat-indifferent social networker, with the most finely tuned Facebook or Twitter feed, will be hard-pushed to get through a day without seeing at least one cat meme, and one of the biggest-selling books of the last couple of years concerns a street cat who was rescued by a down-on-his-luck busker. We've never treated our cats more like children — the skin-crawling term "fur babies" being one of the slightly troubling by-products of this — and some of the food we now give them is so carefully nutritionally balanced and packaged that you half expect it to come with its own packet of pre-grated Parmesan and croutons.