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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Monday, December 17, 2007

holy cats!

The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, UK has a history of cats on the grounds since medieval times. In fact, during the Middle Ages cats were paid staff! See a Cathedral cat of today here, along with a church dog.

Here's a bit more on Exeter cats courtesy of Tales of the Middle Ages:
Notice is due here of the succession of official cats of Exeter Cathedral. The
obit accounts for the cathedral from 1305 through 1467 contain the entry
custoribus et cato (to the "custors" - keepers - and the cat), and on one
occasion pro cato (for the cat), amounting to a penny per week. This sum was
apparantly to supplement the diet of the official cat, who was expected to
control the pest population of the cathedral. A cat-hole is still to be found in
the door in the north transept wall beneath the clock, through which the
salaried feline could enter and egress while going about its task of hunting
rats, mice, birds, and other threats to the cathedral.

1 comment:

The Lee County Clowder said...

It occurs to us that this cat-hole may well be the oldest existing cat door. Certainly is has got to be one of the oldest in continuous use.

Nice to know kitties were training their beans well even back in the 1400's.