The story gets even more historical! In my Ancient Feline History and Cat Mythology class, my teacher told me that the earliest known remains of a cat in Egypt were dated to sometime before 4,000 B.C. In one archeological site in particular, they uncovered more than 300,000 mummified cats all wrapped up and hanging out in the same place. Spooky!
And get this. It’s been suggested that the status of the cat was so high in Ancient Egypt that our death frequently caused great suffering among our Egyptian families. That brings a tear to my eyes. Thus, we were commonly given the option of a full embalming ceremony and many times were buried right next to our caretakers in some of the most exclusive cemeteries along the Nile River.
In brief, I’d say that we’ve been a very special kind of creature from time immemorial, which means forever! I realize that this marvelous era is long past, but you can still worship us all you want, okay? A little heartfelt appreciation goes a long way to get some heavy-duty bonding going on between our two species.
How about another example that will give you an idea about how much we were respected?
It seems that in those B.C. times, killing a feline was considered to be a major crime and that in some cases, even an unintentional, life-ending incident for a cat caused by some careless human resulted in the maximum penalty— death to the offender! That’s some serious kind of protection and admiration that we’re rarely offered nowadays, wouldn’t you say?
The reason why cats were considered such sacred beings, and quite deservingly so, is due in part at least to our being associated with Bast. You see, the people in the ancient Egyptian territories had a religion that was centered on the worship of animals, and we felines were very appropriately included in their honorable pantheon. As it should be, of course. Who would question something like that?