World's Oldest Recorded Pet Door Is Still Open To Cats 400 Years Later

Given the choice, most cats like to roam outside. But how does one avoid becoming a cat’s personal porter, letting them in and out every time they scratch at the door? It’s simple: Install a pet door.

Even 400 years ago, people had the same idea.

At Exeter Cathedral in the United Kingdom, an old door leading to a large astronomical clock has a round, cat-shaped hole carved out of the wood.

Historical records indicate that a bishop named William Cotton instructed carpenters to install the door in 1598. Why? Probably so his cat could catch mice and rats, says author and historian Diane Walker.

Walker explains that rodents were drawn to the cathedral because of the animal fat used to lubricate the clock.

“The idea that the hole was cut to enable the bishop’s cat to catch mice in the space where the clock mechanism was located does lead to a re-think of the ‘Hickory, Dickory, Dock, the mouse ran up the clock’ nursery rhyme,” Walker told Hyperallergic.

A personal door wasn’t the only luxury for cathedral cats. Records also indicate that they got salaries.

"Back in the 14th and 15th centuries we have records in the cathedral of payments of 13 pence a quarter for the cat and occasionally 26 pence a quarter for the cat,” Walker told BBC.

"We don't know if that was double rations because they had been doing a good job or whether there were actually two cats,” she added.

While it’s possible that there are even older cat doors, Walker says she likes to think that Exeter Cathedral is “one of the earliest.”

Even now, cats continue to use this ancient catflap.

The cathedral’s current resident, Audrey, makes frequent use of the cat door. But one thing has changed: Sadly, the cathedral cats no longer receive salaries.

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