Exeter Cathedral has a 14th century door that is mentioned as an entrance for cats. From 1305 cathedral accounts show an allowance for quarterly payments of 13 pence “to the custors and the cats” (custoribus et cato, if you’re doing it in Latin). They kept the rats and mice down following a recorded incidence of mice eating a robe believed to have belonged to Joseph of Aramathea . Photo Jeff Treadwell
Cats get the job done.
Surprising that there aren’t earlier examples in Egypt and the Roman Empire since cats were used to keep rats down there as well.