In the 1st century BC, the Greek historian Diodorus reported the fate of a hapless Roman who'd caused the death of a cat: When a house cat died, the entire family shaved its eyebrows as a sign of grief and mummified cats (along with tiny mummified mice) have been found in Egyptian tombs. We find the first evidence of the wildcat's small cousin, Felis catus, in ancient Egypt - where the beasts were so sacred that any man who killed one was condemned to death. A hauntingly beautiful wood carving of a kneeling figure with the head of a cat (pictured on the right) was found just off the Florida coast - remarkably well preserved, the image dates back over three thousand years. Ai apaec of the Mochica people of Peru was a much-revered feline god, pictured in the shape of a wrinkle-faced old man with long fangs and cat whiskers. In the New World, evidence of wildcat cults is found across Central and South America, where the jaguar was the familiar of shamans and a powerful totemic animal.
In China the lion, Shih, is one of the four principal animal protectors - associated with rain, guardian of the dead and their living descendants. Such imagery has been found in ancient sites across Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East. In the earliest feline images found on cave walls and carved out of stone, wildcats are companions and guardians to the Great Goddess - often flanking a mother goddess figure in the act of giving birth. Which is why, the legend concludes, all cats are proud, to this very day. As their reward, when the boat reached dry land the cats walked at the head of the great procession of Noah's animals. They set to work, and quickly dispatched all the rats - but for the original two. Noah prayed for a miracle, and a pair of cats sprang to life from the mouths of the lion and lioness. When God covered the world with water, and Noah set his ark afloat, the ark became infested with rats eating up the stores of food.
According to one old legend, cats were the only creatures on earth who were not made by God at the time of Creation.
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