Mummified cats, British Museum. Wikipedia.

An excerpt from The Histories of Herodotus, illustrating the ancient Egyptian affinity for cats:

What happens when a house catches fire is most extraordinary – nobody takes the least trouble to put it out, for it is only the cats that matter: everyone stands in a row, and a little distance from his neighbour, trying to protect the cats, who nevertheless slip through the line, or jump over it, and hurl themselves into the flames. This causes the Egyptians deep distress. All the inmates of a house where a cat has died a natural death shave their eyebrows… Cats which have died are taken to Bubastis, where they are embalmed and buried in sacred receptacles. (Book 2:66-67, trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt).

Every now and then they uncover a cache of cat mummies, including at Bubastis, which by the time of the New Kingdom was indeed sacred to the cat-headed deity Bastet.

Wikipedia.

We saw a great exhibit about Egyptian cats at the Carlos Museum last fall. Here is the cover of the exhibit catalogue. Unfortunately there were no cat mummies on display.