Mummified cat put up for auction on website (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Mummified cat put up for auction on website

7:40pm Friday 8th May 2009 in

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A mummified cat which fell on a builder’s head as he pulled down the ceiling of a Victorian city centre building is being auctioned on eBay.

The ancient specimen is available to a good home via the online marketplace website, with the auction due to end next Friday.

Graham Hall, a partner of Bradford-based property auctioneers Harry Hall and Company, decided to cash in on the gruesome find at Dale Chambers in Dale Street and donate the takings to the RSPCA.

The building, a former warehouse, was being converted into flats when a Polish builder got a surprise when it fell on his head – and reportedly said: “Big mice you have in England!”

Mr Hall said: “I was quite sure people would bid for it. It isn’t decomposed at all, it’s just dried out – it’s horrific when you look at it. It looks like a gargoyle.”

On the auction site, Mr Hall states: “It is certainly a gruesome beast, and a real talking point. Even if you haven’t got a morbid fascination, you cannot fail to be intrigued by it.

“The fur has completely gone, but the whiskers, teeth and claws etc are intact.”

Mr Hall said he is at a loss as to how long the cat had been lodged between the ceiling and floorboards on the third floor but thought it could have been trapped when the building was constructed in the 1840s.

He said: “He could do with a dust.”