"This 14th century door at Exeter Cathedral, UK, is thought to be the oldest existing cat flap
A cat was paid a penny each week, to keep down the rats and mice in the north tower, and a cat flap was cut into the door below the astronomical clock to allow the cat to carry out its duties.
Records of payments were entered in the Cathedral archives from 1305 to 1467, the penny a week being enough to buy food to supplement a heavy diet of rodents."
that’s more than 100 cat generations
Now that is what I call long term job security.
They paid the cat? Or the cats owners
“the penny a week being enough to buy food to supplement a heavy diet of rodents.”
I guess it was just an accountant line about the necessary cat food to keep the cat coming instead of moving to a place with easier food.
Good to know actuaries had dry senses of humor back then too
Well, they were English, after all.
How the fuck did you clock me?
Here’s a post with more details - yes, seems like the post I quoted is just people making a joke out of the original Latin phrasing of the payroll, which for some years was written “to the custodians and the cat” rather than the presumably intended “to the custodians for the cat”.
Cat for scale. 🐱
Cat’s like “Oi bruv noice day innit”
A cat was paid a penny a week
Yeah, I’m gonna need a source on that. How does one pay a cat money at all!? If I gave my cat a stack of $100 bills, she might bat at it or rub her face on it. Before wandering off to sniff a speck of dust…
True haha. Here’s a post with more info - I take it the original wording from the Mastodon post I quoted was just being cheeky about the cat technically being on the payroll. One supposes that the cat’s human aide took the money on behalf of their illustrious master ;)
That’s how accountants express humor. I’ll admit it’s not great, but it’s there.
They explain it in the next paragraph. Apparently they used it to buy food.
That being said, I don’t see any citations here so it could all be bullshit.
The cat … exits here.
Sir Isaac Newton, renowned inventor of the milled-edge coin and the catflap!"
“The what?” said Richard.
“The catflap! A device of the utmost cunning, perspicuity and invention. It is a door within a door, you see, a …”
“Yes,” said Richard, “there was also the small matter of gravity.”
“Gravity,” said Dirk with a slightly dismissed shrug, “yes, there was that as well, I suppose. Though that, of course, was merely a discovery. It was there to be discovered.” … “You see?” he said dropping his cigarette butt, "They even keep it on at weekends. Someone was bound to notice sooner or later. But the catflap … ah, there is a very different matter. Invention, pure creative invention. It is a door within a door, you see.
Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective AgencyI see a hole but no flap. I wonder how many rodents got in through the hole?
