Missing cat is found... after 300 years

He was one of the best rat catchers of the 17th century.

For years, the Duke of Bedford's cat protected the original Woburn Abbey against mice and rats.

The cat was so successful that when he died, the Duke decided to bury him in the foundations of the building to protect it.

Now, experts have discovered the cat was perfectly mummified. Despite being more than 300 years old, his whiskers are still visible, and only his fur has been lost.

"It's an amazing find, and is by far the best preserved cat we have ever found in Britain," said Richard Sabin, Curator of Mammals at the Natural History Museum. The cat was discovered in 1915 by workers demolishing an outhouse at the Abbey. They found a small brick capsule containing the cat which, Sabin believes, was preserved by the foundations' cool temperatures.

Next week the mummified cat goes on show for the first time at the Natural History Museum's Walter Rothschild-Zoological Museum in Tring. The museum believes London may be full of similar burial chambers.

"We think it may have been common practice that if a cat was particularly good at catching rats, it would be buried in the foundations to protect the house after its death," said Mr Sabin. "We think there could be hundreds of cats buried under houses all across London.

"We actually found one under the entrance of the Natural History Museum, and recently a Georgian house in Knightsbridge was being renovated and a mummified cat was discovered.

"The owner was pretty shocked when he was told about it, and brought the mummy in to us."

The exhibition also includes examples of Egyptian cats, which were mummified and sold by priests in huge numbers in ancient times.