Ida Muslim-Rolland

Medic. Maths-geek. Cricket fanatic. Ophidiophobic.

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@bcnglow No you’re not the only one

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@NiallHarbison Poppy couldn’t wait to read all about Tina 😍😍😍

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@Malcolm_theCat Cleo’s such a wily little 🐱
What never ceases to amaze me,Mum, is how immaculate the house always is with 5 (+1) furries. We’ve got 2 and it always looks like a bomb site!!😍

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

Lovely to meet my favourite @onepeloton instructor @Susie__Chan at the @nationalrunshow

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@Malcolm_theCat Happy birthday BD! Have a paw-some one 😍🎂🐶

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@Number10cat

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@NiallHarbison Why am I sobbing for a dog I’ve never met and only read about in the last 12 hours…😢 #runfreeamalfi

[Bunsen, Beaker, Bernoulli & Brix @bunsenbernerbmd]

Why do we associate cats with witches?

As we near Halloween let's look at some of the myths and stories that were spread about these fuzzy, adorable creatures.

To start, let's travel back in time before Christianity rose to power in Europe. Many cultures had cats as pets, they admired the cat, and yes, even worshiped the cat.

People buried their cats as they would a family member. The ancient Greeks and Romans wrote about cats.
Obviously, there are the Egyptians who kinda thought cats were pretty swell.

However:

Something went terribly wrong in the Middle Ages (500 A.D. to 1500 A.D.) for the reputation of cats.

Cats went from a cuddly, fuzzy sometimes-pet, to a symbol of evil and awfulness.

Why?

There are multiple theories and stories, with some much more likely to be true than others.

Let's start with the most accurate:

1. The cat was associated with the devil or Satan by church decree

Slowly anti-cat feelings were growing in Europe. We will talk about possible reasons why below.

In 1233 Pope Gregory IX declared publicly that black cats and witchcraft were linked.

The church went even further, stating that cats were in league with Lucifer and a great purge began.

Sadly, thousands of cats were destroyed in brutal and terrible ways.

The word of the Pope was law and thus these feelings swept Europe, and for the next four hundred years, the cat began to be associated with evil, reaching a peak during the height of the witchcraft trials.

2. Cats and Witches

Why were cats associated witches? There were multiple reasons, all debated in the sources we looked at.

One idea is that single women, seen as weird and already possibly evil, took cats as pets and companions.

A household with cats had less mice and rats and there is some evidence that when disease spread by vermin swept through the town, the women with cats were less likely to get the disease.

You can imagine that if a bunch of random people die, except the cat lady, you might start to feel they have mystical and evil powers, and by extension, their cat.

Lastly, it was known at the time that witches could shapeshift into cats. What probably started as a drunken recollection of a cat going into a building and a women quickly exiting became something that everyone believed.

Cats were routinely put on trial with the women accused of witchcraft, and given similar sentences of death.

If you put all of these ideas together, you get a creature forever associated with witches.

3. Cats are built to be spooky at a time when everyone was scared of everything.

Death, disease, famine, superstition, lack of education, science, fanatical religion, and zero rational thought were some of the greatest hits of the middle ages.

If you throw in a creature that prowls around at night and has glowy, glowy eyes thanks to the tapetum lucidum (a special reflective structure), you might get a creature that scared the crap out of everyone who was just using the privy at 2 in the morning.

Cats are also notoriously hard to catch and kill. They are also independent, and do not generally listen to a human's command.

They were seen as spooky, ungovernable entities.

Final Thoughts

In our research we found that despite all this anti-cat and especially anti-black cat sentiments, many people still continued to have cats as pets during this time.

Why? Why would you have a cat as a pet, despite what was known at the time to be truth?

Cats are awesome.

They have big brains, they make wonderful, affectionate pets, and they kept vermin in check so the mice didn't eat your supper.

Many churches had church cats! So that's confusing.

Obviously there is zero evidence to any of the claims, that cats are in league with the forces of evil, despite them knocking crap of your counters and scratching your couch.

If you were ever wondering WHY cats and witches go together at Halloween, hopefully this answers some of your questions!

What other stories have you heard? We didn't cover all them!

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@NiallHarbison Awww Matilda- high as a 🪁

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@ruskin147 Poppy wishing she had opposable thumbs so she could get stuck into the book #dogswithsophiefromromania

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@NiallHarbison Those ears 😍😍😍

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@ruskin147 Now we know who the “new” James Bond is 😂

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@bbctms 2 very classy individuals- we’re so lucky to be able to experience cricket with both of them playing

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@Malcolm_theCat

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@NiallHarbison Mini Bowie is absolutely gorgeous 😍😍😍

[Niall Harbison @NiallHarbison]

Rusty needs your help. His forever home in Ireland fell through at the last minute.

He's the nicest gentlest dog we have.

Ready to travel in early September. I can't explain what a great dog he is after a hard start in life. Hopefully the internet can work it's magic 🥰🙏

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@NiallHarbison This one’s gonna be a heartbreaker 😍

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

Happy #Caturday

[Ida Muslim-Rolland @drtazdevil]

@NiallHarbison Thank God for you @NiallHarbison 🙏