Show strange si brasic facts t government 1 pays cats atla THE HE familiar old proverb says a cat may look on a king but there is no mention of what it may cost the king in england some cats may demand their weekly pay from his maje government there is an old english law providing a shilling a week for the food of each cat employed in the service of the state there are about two thousand cats on the british governments payroll cats still protect granaries cold storage vaults docks workshops ships and stores it is believed that the ancient egyptians domesticated and revered the cat because his protection meant the difference between plenty and starvation the E egyptians gyp were a grain producing people A plague of mice and rats could reduce the population to starvation eighteen centuries before the ch christian stian era the cat was domesticated in egypt and treated with respect and veneration when a house cat died the members 1 hem of the household shaved their eyebrows and went into mourning it is commonly thought that cats can see in the dark this is an erroneous idea their eyes are so constructed that the pupils can contract to mere slits in bright light and become large and round in the dark because of the mechanism of the eye cats can catch rays of light too dim for the human eye to see by cats can see in very faint light but not in total darkness C britannica junior |