Dried cat

In some European cultures it was customary to place the dried or desiccated body of a cat inside the walls of a newly built home to ward off evil spirits or as a good luck charm. It was believed that the cats had a sixth sense and that putting a cat in the wall was a blood sacrifice so the animal could use psychic abilities to find and ward off unwanted spirits.^[1] Although some accounts claim that the cats were walled in alive, examination of recovered specimens indicates post-mortem concealment in most cases.^[2]