In Ancient Egypt cats were thought of as gods. Cats were given the best of care their owners could afford. 

 cats were tended with the care usually only afforded to ailing children, and no expense was spared in trying to obtain medicines. Pets like cats were adorned with jeweled collars, and pendants were hung around their necks with silver, bronze or gold chains. Sometimes cats ears would be pierced and would have ear rings in their ears. Even stray cats were treated with respect and finest food was left out for them.

   When a cat died of illness or old age, the whole family went into a period full of mourning and shaved off their eyebrows as a mark of respect for the dead cat. They would wail, chant and pound on their chests to show their grief, then beat death gongs. Then the master of the house would then wrap the cat in a linen sheet and carry it, with lamentations, to the sanctified house of an embalmer.

   At the turn of the century a cat cemetery was excavated at Beni Hassan in central Egypt and was found to contain more than 300,000 mummified cats.