It's bitterly ironic that Christian people in yesteryear were so superstitious about cats that many of the poor things were actually executed in Jesus' Name as "agents of Satan"
It was their eyes. They were so scary looking when the animals were staring at them that they could "feel" the Devil trying to hex them through the sweet animals.
No kidding. Believe it or not this is true. And you reminded me about when I heard of it Snowthy. But while your mother hates cats at least I'm sure she doesn't really think they're Satan's agents to the same extent.