cats is basically the only predator in all those places where until humans came a range of predators had been. The Nature is a cruel machine where everybody bec

cats is basically the only predator in all those places where until humans came a range of predators had been. The Nature is a cruel machine where everybody becomes old and ill and at that stage majority falls prey to predator (or somebody needs to take care of the carcass otherwise). Like billions of birds end their lifecycle in a year. Human civilization disturbs or breaks the ecosystems, decimating or completely eliminating species, pushes predators out. Humans also bring rats with them (beside many other things rats raid the bird nests for eggs decimating the bird population). In that picture I see the cats as corrective factor, controlling rats and carrying the role of predators pushed out by civilization.