Caturday felid trifecta: NOVA documentary “Cat tales”; a VERY LOUD cat being groomed; Hamlet, the Algonquin Hotel cat; and lagniappe

This is an educational and fun 53-minute episode on cats from NOVA, described by the series this way:

Worshipped as a goddess, condemned as satanic, and spun into a stunning array of breeds, cats have long fascinated humans. But did we ever really domesticate them? And what can science tell us about our most mysterious companions? (Premiered February 19, 2020)

Here are the various sections of the video; the links will take you to a given section. But it’s easier to watch the whole thing! It’s all about domestic cats, neglecting the other 40 living species of felid.

Chapters 00:00
Introduction 03:16
Why Are People Obsessed with Cats? 09:28
Why Aren’t Cats Expressive? 12:46
Can Cats Understand Our Emotions? 14:28
Domestic Cat Relative 18:13
Earliest Encounter Between Human and Cat 21:51
Cat Abilities 25:30
How Do Cats Differ from Their Wild Ancestors 28:30
Importance of Cats in Egypt 34:54
How Domestic Cats Spread Around the World 42:10
The Difference of Feral Cats 46:18
Can Cats Be Trained Like Dogs? 49:04
Breeding of Hybrid Cats 51:12
Conclusion  53 minutes

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For now I’m on a cat-grooming video kick, and here we have a very loud cat named Harley who doesn’t want to be groomed. One alert YouTube commenter noted that the cat meowed 101 times in this 5½-minute video.  Sadly, he has to wear the Cone of Shame. However, the commentary is quite good.

Another commenter said this:

We just casually gloss over how this was without a doubt the single most well behaved cat she ever groomed. No swatting, no hissing, no running away, he stayed put IN THE BATH TUB. He can be as loud as he wants. That cat is any pet groomer’s dream.

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The Algonquin Hotel in New York City was famous for its daily “Round Table,” in which luminaries, wits, critics, and writers would forgather for lunch. The talk was copious and sharp; here’s the Wikipedia description:

The Algonquin Round Table was a group of New York City writers, critics, actors, and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of “The Vicious Circle”, as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929. At these luncheons they engaged in wisecracks, wordplay, and witticisms that through the newspaper columns of Round Table members, were disseminated across the country.

Daily association with each other, both at the luncheons and outside of them, inspired members of the Circle to collaborate creatively. The entire group worked together successfully only once, however, to create a revue called No Sirree! which helped launch a Hollywood career for Round Tabler Robert Benchley.

In its ten years of association, the Round Table and a number of its members acquired national reputations, both for their contributions to literature and for their sparkling wit. Although some of their contemporaries, and later in life even some of its members, disparaged the group, its reputation has endured long after its dissolution.

The members (there’s a long list on the site) included Dorothy Parker (the most famous wit), George Kaufman, Harold Ross, Alexander Woollcott, Robert Benchley, Heywood Broun, and, from time to time, Tallulah Bankhead, Noël Coward, Edna Ferber, and Harpo Marx (yes, he spoke),

That legendary circle is now gone, but the hotel has harbored an uninterrupted series of cats, as described in the article below (click to read).

From Wikipedia:

The Algonquin Hotel has kept a cat in its lobby since the late 1920s. The practice was formerly thought to have originated in the 1930s, but a book by Frank Case indicates that he had cared for a cat named Billy until the feline’s death in the 1920s.  According to administrative assistant Alice de Almeida (the hotel’s “chief cat officer”), the current practice started when the hotel took in a stray male cat that was originally named Rusty. When a guest was sick, Rusty frequently went to that guest’s room and stayed there until they had recovered. Rusty was renamed Hamlet at the suggestion of John Barrymore, who at the time was performing on Broadway in the play Hamlet.  Since then, all the male cats have been named Hamlet, while all the female cats have been named Matilda. It is not clear why female cats are named Matilda, but all the Hamlets are named after the original cat. The hotel has had eight Hamlets and three Matildas in its history. The Algonquin acquired its current cat, Hamlet VIII, in 2017. {JAC: See below.]

The hotel’s lobby contains two feline tree houses. The cat’s collar interacts with an electric geo-fence, which prevents the cat from leaving the lobby, because the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene does not permit animals in dining areas.  The cat has received several gifts from visitors, including four oil paintings. Many people have visited the Algonquin specifically to see the hotel’s cat. One of the male cats was featured in the illustrated book Algonquin Cat;  when that cat died in 1982, his obituary appeared in Variety magazine.  Another cat, a female Ragdoll, was named 2006 cat of the year at the Westchester Cat Show.

Every August, the hotel holds a fundraiser with a feline fashion show featuring the hotel’s cat. The fashion shows started in the 1930s and have raised money for such initiatives as the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals. In addition, the hotel hosts birthday parties for its cat; these events have also served as fundraisers, such as in 2010, when Matilda III’s fifteenth birthday raised money for North Shore Animal League America.^[227] The Wall Street Journal wrote that the cat’s birthday party “is the kind of party where you would find […] $20 Purrtinis for sale, made of Grey Goose vodka, lychee juice, coconut, white creme de cacao and lemon juice and advertisements for Reiki treatments for cats. It is also a party where you would see a cat dressed as a fruit basket…”

Here’s the lineup over the past 40 years

You should stay there when you visit NYC (if you can afford it). If not, at least go visit and see Hamlet VIII

The Algonquin cats have an Instagram post here, and you can read more about the cats (and the Round Table) here (scroll down).  Below is a FB post by Jen (“The Good News Girl”) about the latest Hamlet and his personal assistant (click on the arrow):

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Lagniappe:

Here’s a store in Istanbul with a hat-wearing cat that attracts business (cats are a GREAT way to pull in customers; see below).

I was taken by the several cats frequenting this Istanbul rug shop near the Hagia Sophia.  In fact, over the next three days, I stopped by every day to pet the cats and bargain, and came away with several beautiful rugs. The owner admitted that the cats pulled in customers, and I was one of them!

From FB: cute cats sleeping (click on the arrow):

And the story of a cat who was summoned by mistake to serve on a jury.  Click on the icon to see more.