Secrets of the Cat_ Its Lore, Legend, and Lives - Barbara Holland [0]
OF
THE
CAT
Its Lore, Legend, and Lives
(Formerly titled The Name of the Cat)
Barbara Holland
Illustrations by Emily Schilling
To Sidney
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Introduction
1 The Conversion of Boston Blackie
2 Smart Like Us
3 People with Cats
4 Cats with People
5 Cats with Cats
6 The Cat’s Early Years
7 Cats and the Church
8 A Choice of Cats
9 Show Business
10 Medical Matters
11 Sex and Kittens
12 Practical Cats
Also by Barbara Holland
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
Introduction
In America, cats, pet cats, have sunk so far below the national consciousness that they’ve almost vanished. By last count, American households harbored 82 million cats and only 72 million dogs, ten million more cats than dogs, yet they exist in a shadow world, unmentioned, the social equivalent of, say, pet turtles.
In the supermarket food and toys and comforts for dogs have a double aisle all their own, while cats share half an aisle with mops and brooms. In the bookstores books about dogs regularly pay the rent, while the only books about cats are for children, and British. In the community newspapers regular advice columns appear discussing what they tactfully call “pets”: Does your pet chase cars? Does your pet bite the mailman or bark all night? The local animal shelter runs a full-page ad in every issue with handsome posed photographs and loving descriptions of every dog they have available for adoption and, in the bottom corner, an unchanging
box that mentions they also have plenty of what they call “kitties.”
We elect a new president and when he and his family move into the White House the first thing the country notices is that they have no dog: how can he be president, or even American, without one? The entire country joins his family’s search for the perfect presidential dog. (The Clintons had a cat but it was something of a joke and they got rid of it when they moved, taking only the dog with them.)
Dogs are us. Dogs are loyal, brave, honest, and trustworthy. Cats are slightly suspect. Their association with witches lingers in the bottom of the mind, and closer to the top lies the work of Walt Disney, in whose world cats are sly, sneaky, dishonest, and unmanly, all things unbecoming a Scout. Not long ago, a man whose name had become an international synonym for manliness and courage—Teddy Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill—could cherish his cat or cats and none dared sneer, but these heroes have not been replaced. Today even Dick Whittington would need a dog.
One of the reasons we love dogs is their famous teachability. Having been totally dependent on humans for food and shelter for many thousands of years—unlike the cat, who can often rustle up a bit of a meal in city or suburb—dogs have thoroughly learned the need of pleasing us, of rolling over when we say “roll over.” Their obedience makes us feel happy and powerful. Add the adoring, uncritical gaze, the chin on our beloved knee, and nothing is too good for man’s best friend.
The well-trained dog even develops what we would call a conscience, and stays off the couch even when we’re out of town. I know cats who have been trained to stay off the kitchen counter, and only the soft thud of feet as the owner approaches betrays the lack of conscience. Not, “Is it wicked to get on the counter,” but only, “I will get yelled at if she catches me.” Dog people feel this is not true love.
Silently and out of sight, cat people continue to keep their
disobedient, unadoring cats. The current wisdom is that all cats belong to lonely spinsters, 82 million of them, setting down 82 million saucers of milk in the morning, and we pity their threadbare lives, but there’s no need to inspect their creatures, since a cat is always a cat. Dog people can have a dog in any size, shape, color, texture, or temperament they can manage to imagine, but a cat is always a cat. The same shape, the same size, itself.
It always has been. The Christian Church had a good try at stamping out cats entirely but it failed, and