I'm doing a Factur-Catur-Friday because it's too interesting to wait until tomorrow.
Did you know that cats played an important role during the Black Plague? In the highly superstitious cultural climate of Medieval Europe, cats were deeply feared by Catholics and were thus killed in massive numbers. The killing of cats led to a huge spike in the rat population which spread the plague like wildfire. It eventually became evident that those few who remained loyal to cats were not falling ill to the plague—because the cats were exterminating the rats that carried the illness! As communities welcomed the propagation of cats again, the rat population declined and the plague lost its vigor. Good job, community cats.
Also they killed the cats because they were associated with wise women (aka witches) and the Catholic Church didn't want anyone else, especially women, to hold any knowledge or be seen as the people to turn to when you were in need of healing etc.
The women knew that to avoid disease, you had to keep a clean house - so they had brooms to sweep with and cats to catch vermin.
