A young girl in 1920s Volendam, Netherlands, cradles a cat in her arms as she looks guardedly at the photographer.
Photograph by Donald Mcleish, National Geographic
Three kittens cuddle in front of a giant fish tank, eyeing a very large grouper, at Marineland in 1952.
Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic
Siamese cats gather in their owner's Washington, D.C., living room, drawn by kittens playing with a ball of yarn.
Photograph by Willard Culver, National Geographic
A cat protects its territory by attacking its reflection, seen in this photo from a 1964 National Geographic.
Photograph by Walter Chandoha, National Geographic
While teenage sailor Robin Lee Graham scrubs his boat on a beach near Darwin, Australia, his companion Avanga watches from a precarious perch nearby.
Photograph by Charles Allmon
In this photo from a 1979 National Geographic, a cat contemplates paradise, or perhaps shoewear, from its owner's porch in the North Shore town of Kahuku, Hawaii.
Photograph by Robert Madden, National Geographic
According to the 1997 National Geographic in which this photo ran, a cat's paw pads provide traction similar to that of a ballet dancer's rosin-coated pointe shoes.
Photograph by Karen Kuehn, National Geographic
One cat relaxes while another plays in the shadows at Carnation's Feline Nutrition Center outside Seattle, Washington.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic
Got milk? A cat gets a kiss from a cow on a dairy farm in Massachusetts.
Photograph by Ira Block, National Geographic
Beneath cloudy skies, a young woman lounges with her cat on a trampoline in Mentone, Texas.
Photograph by Jodi Cobb, National Geographic
The world's first cloned cat peeks its head out of a beaker at Texas A&M University in College Station.
Photograph by Richard Olsenius, National Geographic
What are you looking at? Two feral cats glare at a camera-carrying intruder in a Baltimore alley.
Photograph by Vincent J Musi, 2010
What's cooking? A cat sidles up to a farm woman in Breb, Romania, as she prepares food for pigs in 2013.
Photograph by Rena Effendi, Institute
Although they're renowned for their night vision, cats can't compete with infrared light for piercing the darkness. This 2013 thermal image visually captures the reality of a cat's cold nose.
Photograph by Tyrone Turner, National Geographic
Perhaps we love our pets mostly because they put up with us. Here, a cat's face is lovingly framed by its owner in Mill Valley, California.
Photograph by Sisse Brimberg, National Geographic
