Matthew, I have seen parts of Maus, but haven't actually read the whole thing. I like Spiegelman's work, though - he occasionally has pieces in The New Yorker.

As far as cats' association with humans, I'll go back and check Sue Hubbell's book - she gave a couple references to research trying to establish the length of time cats have deigned to live with us.

One thing I do remember from that chapter is that in the late 1800's archaeologists were digging up so many cat mummies in Egypt that they were being used as ballast in ships returning to England, where they were sold to be ground up as fertilizer. Fortunately, enough have been preserved that they have been used in studies comparing anatomy and DNA changes between ancient and modern cats.

Wild cats (not feral kitties, but Felis sylvestris) have brains that are 20-30% larger than domestic cats, mostly in the sensory regions as befits a predator that has to hunt its dinner instead of waiting for a human to open a tin. Siamese cats have brains 5-10% smaller than the average domestic cat, something I've always suspected from the sometimes gormless behavior of mine...