cat (gentle)

For all the world's cat lovers, let it be known that the cat in heraldry is a symbol of liberty, watchfulness, vigilance and courage. The charge of the cat can trace its history to the Roman goddess of Liberty who is represented holding a cup in one hand, a broken scepter in the other, and a cat lying at her feet. Not only was the cat idolized by the Romans but by the ancient Egyptians too. Their goddess Bubastis, is seen as having the body of a human and the head of a cat. The Roman historian Diodorus writes that whoever killed a cat even by accident in ancient Egypt was punished with death. It is also claimed that the Egyptians worshipped the cat as a symbol of the moon because of the cat's nocturnal activity and because of the dilation and contraction of a cat's eyes being similar to the waxing and waning of the moon. A cat can "speak" through its eyes and their hunting ability is legendary. The King of Siam used cats to guard his palace treasure. It is no wonder that Charles IV, of Luxemburg, Emperor of Germany, adopted the lynx (a form of a wild cat) for his seal, with the motto, "Nullius pavit occursum" which means, "He fears not meeting with any one."