Unlocking the Cats’ Mystique
You can’t fail to recognize that the cat has a special appeal. To many of us, the cat is a lovable pet and valued member of the family, whose appeal is very much tied up to its personality. The cat embodies many contradictory characteristics, at once mysterious and sublime yet also mysterious, independent and aloof yet also affectionate and demanding, these graceful, beautiful animals have fascinated mankind for ages.
In ancient Egypt’s, the cat was worshipped as a sacred or even Godlike animal. Cats are valued highly and were domesticated and brought into houses. The penalties were harming cats were severe, and killing a cat carried a death penalty.The cat was not just considered to be a holy animal, the ancients recognized that they were practical to because they killed mice and rats and even snakes, all of them animals you had caused considerable suffering for the people. In arts, human and cat features were often combined to convey a sub lime gracefulness to the features of a human being, and people were proud to wear cat tattoos.
To the ancient Greeks and Romans, cats were valued for their practical role in controlling vermin and protecting vital food supplies.Another role that they fulfil was that of protecting household spirits, who stopped harmful energies and forces from coming into the house and harming the people inside.
However, this is all to change.The belief in even magic and witchcraft was widespread during the dark ages.The popular opinion was that cats were evil creatures possessed by the devil and doing terrible deeds particularly at night.Due to a widespread belief that witches could turn themselves into animals like bats, the average person and started to think that sll cats WERE actually witches in disguise. There are recorded cases of people being tortured and executed simply for helping cats who were injured.Cat owners were often tried and executed as witches merely from the fact of owning a cat.
At this time, there are recorded incidents where huge crowds of panicked people swept through whole area is like towns and counties killing every cat that they could find. This was organised and led by the Catholic church which resulted in the almost complete extinction of cats in Europe by 1400. Due to the massive reduction in the cat population, the vermin population boomed and this left the door open to plauges carried by rats. Europe was brought to its knees by these awful diseases that killed more than half of all the people alive at the time. This is a lesson will never be forgotten.
After this had occurred, people discovered that cats were more important than they had thought, and so the feline population started growing again.This is why most ships sailing across the Atlantic from Europe to the New World carried cats on board, who earned their keep by eating the rats and mice who threatened the valuable cargoes.All the cats we have now in North America, with a few exceptions, can trace their new family tree back to these early exploring ship’s cats.
