Ancient Egyptians called cats Mau and domesticated them about 4000 to 5000 years ago. Many of the cat breeds today actually evolved from ancient Egyptian cats. Cats have been considered sacred by many cultures. In fact cats were so sacred in ancient Egypt, when a family cat passed on the whole family would go into mourning and the animal would be mummified and buried in a special ceremony.
However during the middle ages cats were despised by the church. During this period, devout Christians associated cats with witches, Satan and dark magic. The black cat was in particular the most feared. They were thought to be the devils little minion they were often mentioned in the tales about which is usually described as writing on her broom stick. It was believe the cats bite was poisonous, as it was its flesh, and if you bring that spread you’d be infected with tuberculosis.
When the bubonic plague swept to the European continent in the 14th century, killing up to 60% of the human population in some regions, the church blame the devil. As the church was determined to stop the Devil in his dark mission, it engaged in hunting down witches and liquidating cats. The church believe that the cats were helping the Devil and we’re responsible for the Black Death. It was also believe that cats could steal a babies breath.
The number of dark takes associated with cats is surprising considering we welcome them into our homes today we allow them to sit in our laps, warm by the fire, feed them kibble. And yet I truly believe they’re still out to get us, as evidenced by this weekends events. My own cat decided to run up the stairs at the same time I was coming down them. Not a good combo. The cat got her tail stepped on, but I fell down the stairs face first into the tile floor. After trip to the ER I discovered my right shoulder was broken. Thanks Kitty you’re a real pal. You’re definitely not getting mummified.
Six to eight weeks of recovery time is definitely going to cramp my daily writing habit. (Thank goodness for Text-to-Speech.)
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