by Grania
It’s Caturday again, and it is time to examine feline proclivities.
I’m not sure whether this falls under Cruel and Unusual or whether the cats even noticed, but this was to test whether cats liked listening to music: DEVO Cat Listening Party, you can watch 50 minutes of it at the link.
Verdict: I’m not sure the cats cared.
Our literate ancestors liked cats and they certainly made their way into medieval manuscripts in a variety of delightful poses, but there are also several images preserved for posterity of cats at their least elegant.
and
More here. Suffice to say, the cats don’t care.
Finally something a cat does care about: George sent us this:
My cat, Chirp, watching a mouse on our back step. Chirp got very worked up, whipping her tail around and scratching at the glass that separated them.
And a resume detailing a few other things that a cat might care about.
It is a truth, universally acknowledged that cats approve of sleep. So here’s a worthy post dedicated to sleeping kittens sleeping.
And after all that sleep of happiness, something else to celebrate. The BBC reports that the Iberian lynx returns to Spain from verge of extinction.
They certainly are spectacular beasts.
This is all due to an intensive conservation campaign, however they are not out of the woods yet as they are still endangered not only by humans but also by disease that is killing off rabbits which is their main source of food.
Something that cats may or may not care about is homage from humans. They probably feel it is their due, and so approve of it on general principles.
From The New Yorker, author and Humanities professor Joyce Carol Oates wrote Jubilate: An Homage in Catterel* Verse.
Here’s an extract, you can read the rest over on The New Yorker:
For I will consider my Cat Cherie
for she is the very apotheosis of Cat-Beauty
which is to say, nothing extraordinary
for in the Cat, beauty is ordinary
like the bliss
conferred
upon us
in the hypnosis
of purr-
ing.
She has been known
to knead her claws
upon a sleeve.
And on a knee.
And on bare skin,
sharp claws sinking in—
just a warning.
For she is of the tribe of Tyger
and eyes burning bright
though cuddling
at night
until you wake to discover—
where is she? Cher-ie?
Don’t inquire.
Joyce Carol Oates, you will remember, was a fellow team-mate of Jerry’s in the Cat vs Dog debate in October last year.
And finally, what cats don’t approve of is flowers ( and possibly cheerful singing).
Hat-tip: T Fife, Matthew Cobb, George Boley, TychaBrahe, Steve Kurtz, Aidan Karley, Merilee.
Don’t forget Francesco Marculiano’s two books: I Could Pee On This And Other Poems By Cats and I Knead My Mommy And Other Poems By Kittens.
O my, my … … my, my, my! Thank YOU, EA Blair, for this one: “I Knead My Mommy et Others!”
I was just this morning kicking circa the interwebs searching for the perfect one for a grandkiddo’s birthday upcoming. From me all of the grandbabes may receive books at other times throughout the year, too; but certainly annually every one of them gets, among other stuffs within her or his boxes’ worth, at least one actual book.
This one’ll be Ms Ani Willow’s for this particular year’s celebration.
Blue
My mother always made a point of my siblings and I getting one really good non-fiction book at Christmas about something we were interested in as part of our presents from the time we could read. Before that it was story books, which also continued. She always read to us every night no matter what too.
Now she has grandchildren she does the same with them, including the reading whenever she has the opportunity. I’ve adopted that too – I always read to them (nieces and nephews in my case). They love it, especially when Grandma and Aunty Heather are there at the same time, because we both do it so they get extra.
re “every night no matter what” — — golly, that simply is marvelously smashing.
Blue
Not actually FROM the Middle Ages but depicting that era is this lovely painting from 1955 called “Revelation or the Clock Maker” with a cat in the bottom right corner. Painting by Remedios Varo (a woman).
http://jungcurrents.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/varo-clockkmaker.jpg
You can look at this painting for about 6 minutes and listen to the “Dawn” section of “Daphnis and Chloe” (a different video of which was posted by JAC here many moons ago) here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M0boaBa6QM
Cats were actually largely disliked in the Middle Ages, associated with witches and heretics. When Mercutio calls Tybalt the “Prince of Cats” in “Romeo and Juliet” it certainly isn’t a complement.
Not sure why cats are so popular on the internet, but after reading this post – I can see why they garner such interest.
I wonder if that Devo cat tree is hollow with an entrance so it can be both mountain and fort.
Is that a medieval dentist in Picture 2?
Should that teddy bear be afraid of being mauled?
I’m sure that cats don’t consider their butt-licking inelegant. Harummmph. The very idea! Look at those elegant back legs!
I’m pretty sure Ms. Oates’ poem is riff on Christopher Smart’s “Jubilate Agno” Fragment B, which begins “For I will consider my cat Jeoffry”
Link: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/jubilate-agno-fragment-b-i-will-consider-my-cat-jeoffry
Christopher Smart was an 18th-century English writer. I hadn’t read Jubilate Agno in over 30 years, but it holds up pretty well, and Ms. Oates’ poem is, as I should have been able to discern from the title, a conscious homage to it.
In my family, a cat engaged in butt-licking was said to be “playing the banjo”.
I know it’s just me, but the figure in that second cat-butt-licking pic is yet another of those Jesi with the vaguely-phallic business up their front. He also seems to be trying to give the Boy Scout salute (or is it some kind of code signal) with his fingers.
cr
“this was to test whether cats liked listening to music: DEVO Cat Listening Party”
Shouldn’t they have used actual music for the test, then?
cr
meow
After you look at all the sleeping kittens, click on “Next Post” on the bottom of the page and see one of a new mother. It might make a good card to send to someone who just had a baby. Or maybe not.