You won’t believe the hideous medieval disease your cat can give you

If you’re the one in your circle of friends who everyone refers to as “the crazy cat person”, you may want to keep reading.

Sadly, it looks like our feline friends could actually have the potential to kill us.

Yes, you read that right.

An American man nearly suffered a horrible death after contracting the bubonic plague from his pet cat.

And here we were thinking that the plague was something from medieval days.

The Sun reports that Paul Gaylord became infected after being bitten by his kitty five years ago.

It all began when Gaylord’s cat refused to hand over a mouse, and attacked his owner.

Gaylord was put on life support for nearly a month, as the black plague slowly took over his body.

The proud cat-owner was in his sixties at the time and initially started noticing his skin turning grey and felt under the weather.

Next, the glands under his arms began to swell, growing so big that they were the size of a small fruit at one point.

Eventually he went to the doctor and it was confirmed that he’d actually contracted the plague.

In fact, Gaylord was found to be suffering three deadly stages of the plague.

The first, bubonic, impacted the man’s lymphatic system.

The next, septicaemic, started impacting his bloodstream, while the third, pneumonic, began attacking his lungs.

As the disease began to take over his body, his fingers began to rot. Doctors had no choice but to remove all his fingers, all the toes on his left foot, and another on his right.

At one point, Gaylord even went into a serious coma and doctors weren’t sure he was going to make it.

Thankfully, Gaylord went on to survive and is keeping a positive outlook on life.

“It’s hard to believe it happened to me, but rather than feeling depressed, I’ve always felt positive and happy to be alive,” he told The Guardian.

Gaylord’s cat was eventually put down, with scientists eventually finding that it did in fact carry the deadly disease.

They believe the plague is carried on fleas found on mice, which could explain how Gaylord became infected after he was bitten.

Are you a cat owner? Has your pet ever made you sick?