Thoughts and reflections on cats, ideas, opinions, speculations and observations of various great authors and famous people on the most loved of pets, the cat.
The uncertainty of cats has been thrown in their teeth, but to the true cat-lover this uncertainty is a most attractive trait. One may live in a house for six months with a cat and never receive from it a single kindly word or look. It will perhaps sit quietly on your lap as long as you hold it there, for it hates struggling; but the moment your vigilance is relaxed down it jumps, and licks itself carefully, as a sign that your caresses are anything but agreeable. It will purr when you go down on your knees on the hearthrug and rub it under the chin; but it is purring at itself, not you. Your hand is only a stroking machine. It is not in the least afraid of you, but in a hundred ways it shows that it has no use for your caresses, and that it would rather not be encumbered by unasked attention. Yet, suddenly, and without any cause, this very same cat will one day become, for half an hour or an hour, your dearest friend.
The Cat in Literature
One feels so immensely flattered when chosen by a discriminating cat, for it is an affection which can only be won by merit, and never bought. A dog will love any wreck of humanity who chances to own him, but one needs to be self-respecting to earn the love of a cat. Pussies show their regard in such dignified little ways. When you open the hall door your cat will come half way down stairs to meet you, and will then turn and walk up before you with tail erect, and you feel as heartily welcome as though a dog had jumped all over you and knocked your hat off in the exuberance of his greeting. You notice cats never follow, never even walk by your side–they precede by a sort of divine right.
Kate A. Hall
Having a bunch of cats around is good. If you’re feeling bad, you just look at the cats, you’ll feel better, because they know that everything is, just as it is. There’s nothing to get excited about. They just know. They’re saviors. The more cats you have, the longer you live. If you have a hundred cats, you’ll live ten times longer than if you have ten. Someday this will be discovered, and people will have a thousand cats and live forever. It’s truly ridiculous.
Charles Bukowski
All nations seem to have appreciated the mysterious and almost human qualities of cat nature; the profound cunning, the impertinent indifference, the intense selfishness, yet capable of the most hypocritical flatteries when some point has to be gained. Their traits are not merely the product of brute instinct with unvarying action and results, but the manifestation of a calculating intellect, akin to the human. Then their grace and flexile beauty make them very attractive; while the motherly virtues of the matron cat are singularly interesting as a study of order, education, and training for the wilful little kitten, quite on the human lines of salutary discipline…. For cats are thoroughly well-bred, born aristocrats; never abrupt, fussy, or obtrusive like the dog, but gentle, grave, and dignified in manner. Cats never run, they glide softly, and always with perfect and beautiful curves of motion; and they express their affection, not violently, like the dog, but with the most graceful, caressing movements of the head.
Lady Wilde
What a luxury a cat is, the moments of shocking and startling pleasure in a day, the feel of the beast, the soft sleekness under your palm, the warmth when you wake on a cold night, the grace and charm even in a quite ordinary workaday puss. Cat walks across your room, and in that lonely stalk you see leopard or even panther, or it turns its head to acknowledge you and the yellow blaze of those eyes tells you what an exotic visitor you have here, in this household friend, the cat who purrs as you stroke, or rub his chin, or scratch his head.
Doris Lessing
The kitten has a luxurious, Bohemian, unpuritanical nature. It eats six meals a day, plays furiously with a toy mouse and a piece of rope, and suddenly falls into a deep sleep whenever the fit takes it. It never feels the necessity to do anything to justify its existence; it does not want to be a Good Citizen; it has never heard of Service. It knows that it is beautiful and delightful, and it considers that a sufficient contribution to the general good. And in return for its beauty and charm it expects fish, meat, and vegetables, a comfortable bed, a chair by the grate fire, and endless petting.
Robertson Davies
As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human mind. They realize that, whether they like it or not, they are simply going to have to put up with what to them are excruciatingly slow mental processes, that we humans have embarrassingly low I.Q.’s, and that probably because of these defects, we have an infuriating inability to understand, let alone follow, even the simplist and most explicit of directions.
Cleveland Amory
Tens of millions of people have lived side by side with tens of millions of cats for a very long time – 4,000 years is the generally accepted length of time that we can trace our relationship with them. However, cats never became as fully domesticated as dogs, nor did we ever develop a hierarchical relationship where we became the “masters” of cats…. Cats have lived as solitary hunters for most of their ancestry. Early cats in the wild didn’t depend on any other creature for their comfort and survival–not their own kind, not humankind. So what we may interpret as “aloofness” or “indifference” is really just self-sufficiency–a self reliance that has been in their genes and stood them in good stead for centuries. Cats are programmed to rely on their own skills and judgment, never depending on a leader or a group to help them make decisions. Cats do not look to us for supervision or permission, they don’t turn to us for affirmation, nor do they accept training, by and large.
Tracie Hotchner
Cats are like oysters, in that no one is neutral about them; everyone is, explicitly or implicitly, friendly or hostile to them. And they are like children in their power of discovering, by a rapid and sure instinct, who likes them and who does not. It is difficult to win their affection; and it is easy to forfeit what is hard to win. But when given, their love, although less demonstrative, is more delicate and beautiful than that of a dog.
Canon Liddon
Cats don’t care if you’re gay or straight, what your religion is, or whether you’re conservative or liberal. They don’t care if you’re a few pounds overweight. Cats aren’t threatened if you earn more than they do. Cat’s don’t have problems expressing affection in public, and if you piss ‘em off, they walk away.
Glenda Moore
Dogs and horses are our slaves; cats never. This does not prove them without affection, as some people seem to think; on the contrary, it proves their peculiar and characteristic dignity and self respect. Women, poets, and especially artists like cats; delicate natures only can realize their sensitive nervous systems.
Helen Maria Winslow
A cat … plays for her own enjoyment, in a self-contained way, with no desire to share. Shut her up alone, and a ball, a fringe, or a looped piece of string is enough to make her give herself up to silent and graceful sport. While she is playing she does not say, “Man, I’m so awfully glad I’ve got you here!” She will play beside the bed of a corpse.
Karel Capek
Dogs love you no matter what, because God mad them that way. They are pack animals and will always choose to be with their particular pack of humans no matter how they are treated. Cats are discriminating and hold you to a higher standard. You have to earn their trust and a certain amount of pride can be taken in the achievement.
Debra Deblock-Hayford
I cannot agree that it should be the declared public policy of Illinois that a cat visiting a neighbor’s yard or crossing the highways is a public nuisance. It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming. Many live with their owners in apartments or other restricted premises, and I doubt if we want to make their every brief foray an opportunity for a small game hunt by zealous citizens–with traps or otherwise…. To escort a cat abroad on a leash is against the nature of the cat, and to permit it to venture forth for exercise unattended into a night of new dangers is against the nature of the owner. Moreover, cats perform useful service, particularly in rural areas, in combating rodents–work they necessarily perform alone and without regard for property lines.
Adlai Stevenson
Cats accept the improvements that we make in their lives but they do not accept that we should have any control over them. People can give safety, sustenance, and comfort to a cat, but both sides know she could walk out tomorrow and find her own way if it came to that. The underlying independence that keeps a balance of power between people and their cats is the source of our fascination with our feline family members. But it’s really helpful to keep in mind that you need to accept your cat as she is–and for who she is.
Tracie Hotchner
The naming of cats is a difficult matter; It isn’t just one of your holiday games. You may think at first, I’m as mad as a hatter When I tell you a cat must have three different names.
T. S. Eliot
We own a dog–he is with us as a slave and inferior because we wish him to be. But we entertain a cat–he adorns our hearth as a guest, fellow-lodger, and equal because he wishes to be there. It is no compliment to be the stupidly idolized master of a dog whose instinct is to idolize, but it is a very distinct tribute to be chosen as the friend and confidant of a cat.
H. P. Lovecraft
Cats are narcissistic. Their needs come before ours. They don’t understand the word “No.” They carry themselves with that aloof, arrogant sense of perpetual entitlement, they will jump up and insinuate themselves wherever they please–on your lap, on your newspaper, on your computer keyboard–and they really couldn’t care less how their behavior affects the people in their lives. I’ve had boyfriends like this; who needs such behavior in a housepet?
Caroline Knapp
Mystery has always shrouded the feline. The cat is a powerful, agile hunter moving silently through the night, stalking its prey; or a calculating thinker that has incredible patience when setting its trap, yet is impatient with unwanted acts of affection from humans. The cat is a creature of great beauty, defying gravity with athletic feats and supreme acts of grace. From the ancient Egyptians to the Shakespearian era and into modern times legends of the cat have grown into extraordinary myths.
Alexandra Powe Allred
The moral charm of the cat consists in one’s complete inability to fathom their minds and motives. A dog’s mind is generally a clear and straightforward affair. You can never discover what strange things are passing in a cat’s brain. You know that a dog is looking up to you, following your whims and reflecting your fancies–is, in a word, intellectually dependent upon his master. Not so with a cat. The cat is never the servant of your hand and eye. She may deign to play with you, but it is always with reserves complete enough to save her own individuality and freedom of action. The cat plays with you as much as you with her.
The Cat in Literature
You now have learned enough to see That Cats are much like you and me And other people whom we find Possessed of various types of mind. For some are sane and some are mad And some are good and some are bad And some are better, some are worse – But all may be described in verse.
T. S. Eliot
Let take a cat, and foster her with milk And tender flesh, and make her couch of silk, And let her see a mouse go by the wall, Anon she leaveth milk and flesh, and all, And every dainty that is in that house, Such appetite hath she to eat the mouse. Lo, here hath kind her domination,
And appetite banishes discretion.
Geoffrey Chaucer
I think one of the reasons we admire cats – those of us who do – is their ability to prove themselves superior… They always seem to succeed, no matter what they are doing – or pretending to do. You will rarely see a defeated cat. These animals have no conscience, no regrets. And perhaps we secretly admire them.
Barbara Webster
They go and sit on the table, next to the writer, keeping his thoughts company and looking at him with intelligent tenderness and magical penetration. It almost seems as if cats sense the thought that is passing from the brain to the pen, and when they stretch out a paw it is as if they were trying to grab it.
Theophile Gautier
We tie coloured ribbons round their necks, and sometimes tinkling little bells, and pretend to think that they are sweet and dull, as the modest name of kitty, by which we call them, would lead one to believe. It is a curious illusion. For what purrs by our firesides and paces with quick little steps along the fences at the back of our gardens is in reality a wild animal, fearless and independent like no other in the world.
Alan Devoe
Becomes your companion in hours of solitude, melancholy and hard work. He stays for whole evenings on your knees, showing his happiness with prolonged purring, happy to be with you and preferring your company to the animals of his species.
Theophile Gautier
Cats do not express their thoughts and feelings, which does not mean that they do not miss you when you are away. However, they sense that you have behaved very badly and may not be very civil when you return home. After you have apologized, normal relations between you can be re-established.
Susanne Millen
A cat is a gentleman: elegant in demeanor, exquisite in manners and immaculate linens, and with a passion for hand-to-hand combat, wild romances, moonlight duels, and songs of joy. He expects impeccable service from his household staff, and knows a range of invectives that would make a laborer pale.
Pam Brown
A mother cat warns her kittens of danger by hissing, and the kittens know what she means. A mother cat repels another cat or a dog by hissing, and the kittens know what she means. A mother cat drives her kittens away from their food by hissing, and they know what she means. To humans, these hisses all sound the same, but not – apparently – to cats.
Peter Gray
Places to look: Behind books on shelves, inside any cupboard with a door too small for a cat to crawl out of, on top of anything that offers a shelf, under anything seemingly too low for a cat to crouch under, and inside the piano.
Roseanne Ambrose-Brown
The truly great thing about cats is their endless variety. One can choose a cat to match almost any decor, income, personality, mood. But underneath the fur lies – always the same – one of the free spirits of the world.
Eric Gurney
Basically, quiet living is not that interesting for a cat. The image of a cat content with a saucer of milk and a place by the fire is half the truth. The second, more important half, we can only guess at. It begins where we are not present in the world’s largest open-air community.
Lloyd Alexander
There are other bonds that cats impose on our affections. We enjoy their intelligence and grace, and feel a strong sense of companionship and comfort in their presence. But these are ideas that we can communicate in words. The reasons for the attraction that these felines exert on us can never be expressed too clearly.
Lloyd Alexander
If the urges of the outside world are strong, there is also a pull towards the human. A cat may disappear during one of its rounds, but, sooner or later, it will return for a moment, to greet us with its very particular kind of love. Dependent as they are, cats find something more than pure pleasure in our company.
Lloyd Alexander
Of course, I have had encounters with men, women, animals who taught me: especially with cats, whose nature was expressed in dance moves and acts of kindness. Of the greatest of these encounters I dare not speak. I know that when I speak of animals, to whom I recognize an importance equal to or greater than that of men, I generate annoyance or incredulity. Now, after seventy years, I care little.
Elèmire Zolla
It is a well-known fact that the survival rate after a heart attack is significantly higher among pet owners and that blood pressure is lowered in the presence of these four-legged friends – especially cats.
Maya Patel
Cats are sophisticated animals. If they can, they will fall asleep on a hot water bottle or in the crook of your knees or on your lap or curled up in your arms, although there are some eccentrics who prefer to nestle under your chin, curl up around your neck, curl up on your side or your ribs or your shoulders or just insist on lying nose to nose, sniffing. Cats like open doors – in case they change their minds.
Rosemary Nisbet
On the high windowsill were a row of potted geraniums, and nestled among them, where there was a sliver of sunlight, was a tortoiseshell cat. Cyril crossed the street and petted it – he had always liked cats – and it stood up, stretched, arched its back, and purred. The clock ticked slowly, and there was a faint buzz of bees. Nothing seemed to want to wake up.
Ernest H. Shephard
I would like to see the two cats dozing side by side in a Victorian chair, their paws, their ears, their tails arranged in a complementary manner, their blue eyes winking at a single thought, when, that is, I will remember their dinner. They could have been composed by Bach for a flute duo.
Sylvia Townsend Warner
We know that Dr. Johnson’s cat was named Hodge and that Dr. Johnson loved him dearly. But we have no idea what kind of cat Hodge was: whether long-haired or short-haired, whether black or white or brown. We don’t know because it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that Hodge was a beautiful cat.
Marion Garretty
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