Kill a cat in ancient Egypt and the penalty was death. Not a metaphor. Diodorus Siculus watched a Roman soldier get lynched over one. Then there are the mummies: hundreds of thousands of them, bred for the purpose.
Cats in Ancient Egypt: Bastet, Mummies, and the Law That Killed a RomanCats in ancient Egypt were sacred, mummified by the million and guarded by a rule so fierce a Roman died for breaking it. What the sources really say.pudgycat.io