Cats aren't really domesticated. Out of many, many cat species we just found one that's well aligned with humans and it spread with humans to the whole world. No other cat species plays well with humans and none shows any signs of domestication.
Sure thing. That one specific cat species was (and still is) Felis silvestris lybica. All domestic cats come from it and it's still the friendliest towards humans, out of all cat species. They still can and commonly bread with each other when they live in the same area.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. But a counter hypothesis I have is that this might be from the wild population over time getting more interbreeding with escaped domestic cats, causing the apparently domestic behavior in the wild ones.
I think it should be easy to rule out with genetic research and it probably was ruled out since the research shows that domestic cats come from this wild species not yhe other way around, though they interbreed in areas where they have opportunity.
Seems like there's some controversy here, with some research saying that the wildcat is endangered from interbreeding with feral domestics and others saying that its too late.
That's a recessive trait that is fatal if they get two copies of it. When left to their devices they'll return to being normal cats in a few generations.
