I didn't see the original posting about this...and probably shouldn't
bother replying...but...I have seen a (dead) desicated or "mummified" cat
that was found under a house floor (in the crawl space).  Upon drying...the
skin pulls back...so it would be 'normal' for the mouth to be gaping
wide...and the form to look "grotesque" (contorted)...even if the animal
died while curled up sleeping.  My point being, they don't have to die a
traumatic death to look this way...natural desication creates such a
look...from my limited experience with such dead bodies.  Cats can crawl
into small spaces...and die 'accidentally' inside walls, etc.  I doubt
many, if any, were put into the walls on purpose (unwillingly, etc.).

At 07:15 PM 10/22/2004 +0100, you wrote:
>In message <[log in to unmask]>, Automatic digest processor
><[log in to unmask]> writes
> >I am still rather puzzled by your statement that cats mummified in grotesque
> >positions are proof positive that they were placed there unwillingly, unless
> >they were actually set in the plaster which is not the situation with the
> >mummified cats which were alleged in the program to have been used to ward
> >off witches. How do you get a live cat placed within a wall cavity to hold a
> >grotesque position while it starves to death and why would the position it
> >died in be any different from that of a cat which was trapped accidentally
> >within the same cavity?
>
>I've seen cats which were either put into walls dead, or they
>unfortunately starved to death in the wall at the very moment they put
>their claws into a mouse.