So, why are cats said to have nine lives? Maybe it all started with the words of the Egyptian cat god Atum-Ra taken from a religious text of the 22nd Bubastite Dynasty (945-715 BC):

quote:

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"I am one who becomes two, I am two who becomes four, I am four who becomes eight, and I am one more besides."

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But there are more interesting things to know about cats! Such as the fact that they were revered by Greek and Roman women as a symbol of fertility and a guardian of health. Also, the average cat has a successful pounce rate of 1,100 a year. Indeed, this ability to keep the rodent population at bay helped propel cats into many of the world's classical religious beliefs.

Christianity, however, turned against cats because they were revered by pagan religions. During the Great Cat Massacre (ordered by Pope Gregory IX in 1233), millions of cats perished. Further, women with suspicious connections to cats were also put to death. But, what comes around goes around: The systematic elimination of the cat from western Europe allowed the rat population to soar, which in turn led to the Black Death of 1346-1351, where as many as 20 million people perished.