Cats: Destroying Stuff Since Forever

There are three stories in The Atlantic that demonstrate how cats have left their mark, literally, in work from distant times.  The first documents cat paws in a brick from Roman times that ultimately wound up in construction at Washington State’s Fort Vancouver, probably from the early 1800’s.  The second tells the tale of a book dating from March 11, 1445 with inky paw prints across the page.  The book in question is described as a something akin to a 15^th century Federal Register.  The third is the story of another book, this one from 1420, where a cat marked it in another way.  The scribe who created it lamented on the page in question that a cat urinated on the open book.  He wound up drawing pictures of hands that marked the outer edges of the stain, along with a drawing of a cat.  The moral?  Don’t leave your books open at night when cats are around.

I have dealt with multiple situations where a cat has changed my computer settings by pressing a combination of keys through walking or laying on the keyboard.  Once I found a computer mouse dangling off the table by the merest shred of a cable.  The cat may have been entertained by the mouse, but I wasn’t.  There was a time where I built my own machines, and like most that do so, I kept the side of the case open for easy access.  I did, at least, until I discovered my cat had decided the open case was a great substitute for a litter box.  Little was salvageable.  Not only do I keep the cases closed now, I throw towels over them to keep them safe from curious paws.  It seems cat behavior hasn’t changed a bit in 2,000 years, only the objects of that behavior. 
Pictured:  The cat who loves computers.  [MG]