MEDIEVAL WASHING CATS
The illustrated manuscripts of European mediaeval monks contain many depictions of fantastical beasts. Some were legendary bests from far away places, drawn purely from description, while others were mixtures dreamt up by (presumably) bored monks to lighten the laborious task of copy manuscripts. Some of these were the LOLcats and memes of the middle ages - as well as cats there were several distinct themes such as knights battling snails and vicious rabbits attacking humans.
Cats were depicted in domestic settings: catching mice, playing with yarn, facing up to dogs etc. I have no doubt that some of the illustrations were jokes at the expense of fellow monks or superiors: “This shows Brother Edward with the body of an ape.” Then there were the little cartoons of bodily functions – monkeys farting or projectile defecating, men with trousers down and squatting to poop, or couples in sexual congress. There are plenty of domestic animals portrayed, but the ones that amuse modern cat lovers seem to be the “washing cats.” Depicting a cat washing its nether regions obviously tickled the monks’ sense of humour.
It's not uncommon for people to doodle imaginary animals, and the monks who copied and illustrated manuscripts were no different. Some were symbolic, others were sly jokes, but most were probaby products of their imagination to make their work more interesting as well. Because the monks varied in their artistic abilities, and because they were trying to work fast, many of the cats have strange human like features or odd proportions.
As an aside, some drawings were relatively accurate representations of exotic beasts, such as the family of lions (seemingly based on real lions in a royal menagerie, and one illustrator has copied the work of another when reproducing a book).
Meanwhile, in the East, Muslim artists depicted ottomans feeding street animals, something seen as an act of faith.
