Paw prints from a domestic cat were recently noticed by researchers on a 2,000-year-old Roman roof tile, proving that cats have been remorseless life-ruiners since at least the dawn of Christianity. 
 
 The tile was originally discovered in 1969 in Gloucester, UK, and has been sitting largely unnoticed at the Gloucester City Museum ever since (“At that time the archaeologists seem to have been more interested in digging things up than looking at what they found,” sniffed David Rice, the museum’s curator, to Discovery News). 
 
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 “I believe there are more cat paw prints found on ancient Roman tiles in Britain than anywhere else in the Roman Empire including Italy. Roman Britons must have had a special liking for cats,” Rice added. 
 
 A museum spokesperson mapped out the irritating scenario for the Telegraph: 
 
 “When Romans made roof tiles they left the wet clay out to dry in the sun. Animals, and people, sometimes walked across the drying tiles and left their footprints behind. The cat is thought to have snuck across the wet tiles in Gloucester in about AD100, probably at the annoyance of the tile makers, but this did not stop the Romans from using the tile. The tile, a type called tegula, was used on the roof of a building in what became the Berkeley Street area of modern Gloucester.” 
 
 Cats: even the Romans couldn’t keep them in line. 
 
 Contact the author at ellie@jezebel.com. ||||| What's all the fuss? It's just a cat, says woman seen on CCTV shoving tabby in wheelie bin 
 
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 A woman who enraged animal lovers across the world by dumping a cat in a wheelie bin said today she 'thought it would be funny'. 
 
 
 
 But Mary Bale, 45, has received death threats, and a Facebook page set up to track her down has attracted more than 18,000 members. 
 
 
 
 Miss Bale was caught on video picking up four-year-old tabby cat Lola before throwing her into the bin and closing the lid. 
 
 But she claimed the outcry had been blown out of all proportion. 
 
 She said: 'I don't know what the fuss is about. It's just a cat.' 
 
 The unmarried bank worker said she was just walking home on Saturday when she saw the cat and decided to play with it. But she told the Sun that she 'suddenly thought it would be funny' to put it in the bin. 
 
 'I did it as a joke because I thought it would be funny. I never thought it would be trapped, I expected it to wriggle out,' she said. 
 
 Referring to the CCTV footage, she told how she could not believe it was being seen around the world and was afraid it would upset her family. 
 
 
 
 She said: 'I don't know what my relatives will think but to be honest I think everyone is overreacting a bit.' 
 
 While Miss Bale admitted she should not have done it, she said she did not deserve to be 'hated' by everyone and assumed the cat would find its own way out the bin. 
 
 Her mother also insisted the unmarried bank clerk 'loved cats' - and had even kept them as pets as a child. 
 
 Celia Bale, 78, said: 'She's my daughter and as far as I'm concerned she is the most caring person you could ever wish to meet. 
 
 'She had cats when she was a little girl and has never shown any cruelty to animals before in her life - she loves animals. 
 
 'I talked to her on the phone today and she can't explain why she did it or what got into her head, only that she really regrets it.' 
 
 
 
 The mother-of-three added that her husband Maurice, Miss Bale's father, was in a critical condition after falling down the stairs last week, damaging his pelvis and vertebrae. 
 
 
 
 She said of her daughter: 'She's been under a great deal of strain these past two weeks. 
 
 
 
 'Her father had a nasty fall and has been in a critical condition in hospital ever since. 
 
 
 
 'She's very close to her father and I think it's had a real impact on her. 
 
 
 
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 Reunited: Lola back with owner Darryl Mann yesterday. He posted footage of the incident on YouTube in a bid to catch the culprit, now identified as Miss Bale (pictured above at her church choir's annual dinner) 
 
 'She's been soldiering on but I think it has got to her more than I realised. 
 
 'I'm awfully worried about her because people have been saying some dreadful things about her and making threats.' 
 
 
 
 She added that she believed her daughter might keep animals if she didn't work. 
 
 
 
 'I know that sounds ironic considering what has happened, but she does love cats,' she said. 
 
 It was also revealed last night that Miss Bale, who lives in Coventry and works as a cashier at RBS in nearby Rugby, was once a member of the Birmingham Bach Choir. 
 
 Miss Bale seems harmless as she strokes four-year-old cat, Lola, as it walks along a wall on a street in Coventry. But she then grabs it by the scruff of its neck, puts it in a wheelie bin and casually walks away 
 
 
 
 Miss Bale was caught on camera in Coventry as she threw the cat into the wheelie bin this weekend. 
 
 
 
 Lola was found 15 hours later when owner Darryl Mann, 26, heard her mewing from inside the bin. 
 
 Members of a Facebook group set up by Lola's owners to identify the woman in the CCTV footage have posted death threats against Miss Bale. Some have been posted from as far away as Australia. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands around the globe have seen the YouTube video they also posted, 100,000 in the UK alone. 
 
 One wrote 'throw her in the bin and see how she likes it', while others called for her to be killed. Last night, owner Stephanie Andrews-Mann, 24, said she was glad the culprit had been found and hoped she'd be brought to justice. 
 
 She said: 'All I wanted was a name so I could pass it on to the police. 
 
 
 
 'It's terrible that her dad's in hospital, but to be totally honest, it's not my cat's problem. 
 
 
 
 'Though what she did was totally wrong, I don't want her to be too petrified to go out.' 
 
 West Midlands Police were keeping watch outside Miss Bale's terraced home yesterday and a spokesman said she had been offered advice on how to stay safe. 
 
 
 
 Neighbours described her as a reclusive woman who rarely had visitors. One, who asked not to be named, said: 'She is a very nice lady, though very quiet. 
 
 The police and RSPCA investigation is continuing. 
 
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– It's now a safe bet that people have been swearing at cats for 2,000 years. Officials at the Gloucester City Museum in England have found an ancient roof tile with the telltale paw prints of a feline being somewhere it wasn't supposed to be, reports the Telegraph. They can only surmise that a cat ran across the wet tile while it was drying, sometime around 100 AD. Despite the prints, workers fired the tile, called a tegula, and popped it onto the roof of a building under construction in what is now Gloucester. The tile had been tucked away in the museum since 1969 before being spotted. “At that time the archaeologists seem to have been more interested in digging things up than looking at what they found,” the museum curator tells Discovery News. The cat may well have belonged to a Roman soldier stationed at the building site, notes the website. "Cats," observes a blogger at Jezebel. "Even the Romans couldn't keep them in line." (But if you've got one, here's the proper way to pet it.)