The FELINE cats
"The original FELINE database, which pre-dated the World Wide Web, had a Viewdata/Teletext style front page, where the user chose which category they wanted. Having chosen the name 'FELINE', I tried to draw a front page with some sort of cat-like image, but it didn't work. The graphical resolution available simply wasn't sufficient."
Martin Brasier.
The font for the FELINE title (with the special letter N) was designed like that to avoid using a rough-looking jagged diagonal line.
The whimsical addition of actual cats began with modlangs.co.uk in 1995, when few had publishing access to the Web. Now, of course, anyone can do it for themselves, and many do, often on Facebook.
Keiller, our own "office cat" from 2013-2023, had a Facebook page, as did his illustrious predecessor, Miss Rumple (with us from 1996-2012).
For a trip down Memory Lane (what web pages looked like back in the mid-90s) visit the gallery of FELINE cats...