What year were cats spotted?

This question is a bit tricky! It's not about spotting cats in the sense of seeing them for the first time, as cats have been around for a very long time. Here's why:

* Domestication: Cats were first domesticated in the Middle East around 10,000 years ago. Before that, they were wild animals.

* Evolution: The ancestors of modern cats have been around for millions of years, with the first cat-like creatures appearing around 25 million years ago.

So, it's not about "spotting" cats but about understanding their history. We can say that cats have been around for at least 10,000 years since their domestication, and their ancestors existed millions of years before that.