7
of a period of the cat coming in from the
cold, but from our recent knowledge we can see
the relationship in a clearer light.
Despite their superb armoury as supreme
hunter with scimitar claws and needle sharp
teeth, feral cats will readily take scaveng-
able food as a large part of their diet. It
is this that first brought the cat into
domestication and keeps it with man. The
density of cats is higher around a readily
available food source, and today most hospitals
and large factories have their groups or
colonies of free-living feral cats. (See
"The Wildlife of the Domestic Cat"). This
is certainly so in such sites as I have looked
at in metropolitan Essex including Dagenham and
Romford. These sites have certain factors
which make them ideal for cat colonies. Large
sites with centralised and scattered buildings
with plenty of cover and often culverts, site
kitchens with large amounts of edible waste,
and a workforce with few in overall
responsibility. These features were also
provided by the monasteries, and consequently
colonies of feral cats would have centred
upon them
Looked at from today, medieval life seems
heavily prescribed by law and custom to the
extent of insistance on identifiable clothes
and furs to be worn on the basis of status
level. For clerics the only fur permissible
for trimming dress was cat. Edward Ill's
laws restricting the use of apparel specifies
cat skins. It seems that far from being an
exercise in humility, it was just a tacit
recognition of what occurred anyway - clerics
wore cat fur. While the functional outlook