Since I aim to make this blog not only light-hearted fun for the whole family, but educational as well, let me offer the following moral: If you should ever happen to find a mummified cat in your building, it’s probably there for a good reason.
Allow me to explain.
Our story begins with an ancient mill which stood over the River Stour in Sudbury, England. In 1971, the building was renovated into a hotel called “The Mill Hotel.” (A lot of effort obviously went into coming up with that name.) During the work, an unnerving find was made: the withered remains of a cat, who had evidently been trapped in the roof of the original building. (In olden times, it was not uncommon to entomb small animals within new buildings as a grisly “good luck” charm for the structure. We will never know if this cat was placed there for that reason, or if it was simply the victim of a tragic accident.)
In any case, the remains of this unfortunate feline were taken to a nearby shop. Almost immediately, a large wooden beam in the hotel suddenly crashed down, causing severe damage to the building. The subsequent repairs created a financial shortfall which temporarily postponed further restoration work. Then, the shop hosting the cat mummy mysteriously caught fire. After this, everyone came to the conclusion that the removal of the cat might have made someone very, very annoyed. The mummy was brought back to the hotel, where it was given pride of place in a glass-enclosed tomb in the lobby’s floor. (To date, it can still be seen there, for those of you with a taste for such things.)
In 1999, repair work necessitated the cat’s temporary removal. And probably to no one’s real surprise, all hell instantly broke loose. During the mummy’s two-week sabbatical, there was an explosion in the road outside the hotel, the manager’s office repeatedly flooded, and the workman who had removed the cat suffered a severe accident.
Very sensibly, the mummy was returned to the hotel as quickly as possible, and peace was instantly restored to the Mill Hotel.
A new generation in '99 had to learn the hard way what that of 1971 already had.
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