Origins

Mice were invented in 1859
to give cats something to do.
Prior to then cats slept,
dug holes under rosebushes,
at twice their weight in food,
scratched carpets, lounged on beds,
shed over everything,
made general pests of themselves
most times of the day.
Cats still do all of these things, of course,
but now they have mice.

—James S. Dorr