FREDERICK, Maryland: Your pet cat may not love you as much as you think.

A genetic study on the origins of the domestic cat published in the journal Science suggests that today's household tabbies actually 'domesticated' themselves. According to the Washington Post, the findings of the said study suggest that the ancestors of today's felines wandered into Near Eastern settlements around the time humans began agriculture, in search of food, not friendship or human companionship.

Oxford University doctoral fellow and study lead author Carlos Driscoll told Forbes: "Cats weren't domesticated on purpose, they just kind of invited themselves in." Driscoll, together with an international team of researchers, compared genetic information from 1000 domesticated cats around the world via a new process called genomic archeology.

"Our study was able to localize it down to one subspecies whose range included the Near East," Driscoll told the Chicago Tribune. This animal is called lybica. The study showed that felines first became domesticated soon after humans started farming, somewhere in the Middle East. Researchers believe feline domestication began somewhere near the 'Fertile Crescent' (what we now know as Iraq).

As large-scale grain agriculture began to flourish about 12,000 years ago, humans had to contend with the problem of mice infesting surplus grain . Not only did the mice eat the grain, they also spread disease. This was the mutually benefical opportunity that wild cats were waiting for. While farming communities needed to get rid of the rodents infesting their barns and granaries, wild cats needed a regular supply of food and shelter. Thus began a "mutual relationship" between cats and humans.

Melinda Zeder, zooarchaeologist from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, described so-called feline domestication to the Tribune: "..domestication needs to be looked at as a mutualistic relationship. The cats may have had the upper hand in this relationship in the beginning and retained it to this day."

Over the years, natural selection favored animals which tolerated human contact - including cats. This advantage put the your pet cat's wild ancestor in a better position to survive than other feline relatives.

Today, humans own felines more for their pet and companionship qualities than their pest-extermination abilities. However, according to this new study, cats may not have evolved as much as we'd expect. Even today, cats see their owners not as a companion but more so as a provider. The results of this study could perhaps explain why (unlike canines who are extremely loyal and affectionate), cats tend to seem more... well, aloof.

One example that cat owners will relate to is when a cat suddenly hisses or tries to scratch or bite during a seemingly-harmless petting or stroking session. According to hdw-inc.com, this behavior is just a feline's way of expressing that he/she has had enough petting and stroking from the owner. In other words, it's the cat's way of saying, "That's enough. I don't need anymore petting from you." Ouch.

Cat lovers the world over may find the results of this study a little surprising. Are thousands of years of cat-human interaction just a ploy for feline survival? Maybe. However, domesticated cats and cat owners all over the world have proven that there's more to the cat-human relationship than just the need for companionship and survival. Remember Sylvester, the part-Persian stray who saved her owner?

And in their own feisty and furry ways, cats have also developed their own method of expressing affection to humans, like a simple rub of the head against your body which means that he's "marking" you as his property. Now, how's that for sweet?

Your cats may not love you as much as you might have thought, but rest assured, they still love you.