Interesting article from Salon:
“The internet is the best thing that ever happened to cats,” said one commenter at the video-sharing site Videosift, following a clip in which one kitten faces off against a litter of puppies in a “Matrix”-type satire.
Actually, cardboard boxes and string are the best things that ever happened to cats. But the Internet is one of the best things that ever happened to cat people.
Consider this an open thread for all matters feline!
<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/346021839_e5809615d3.jpg"
Image courtesy of TraCataldo on Flickr – licenced under Creative Commons.
I’d like to make a public apology to my cat. A lot of the time we catch her unsuccessfully chasing birds for which she is (rightly) excoriated, but she has in fact been successfully catching rodents and has left a pile of carcasses in the garden next door and an extra special one in the front yard on Sunday – with it’s throat torn out, lion-like. Amazing work for something that gets paid in dry food and the occasional tummy scratch.
Here’s some software to help the owner of the pictured laptop
Cat’s love laptops.
Hooray for open cat threads! I hope it can be kept free of the extremer forms of anticat negativity, however.
Where to begin?
The Salon article is very enjoyable, with great links. I like that the author starts off by noting how little narrative cat media there is outside of the internet. It’s true. It’s all dog stuff. (Which is fine.) Cats don’t seem to lend themselves to long-form fictional storytelling.
I was looking for pet-centred fiction to put into a syllabus last year and there was heaps of suitable dog material but really nothing useable about cats. It was all either out of print / obscure (Paul Gallico, Ethel Mannin) or overly memoirish, or else fragmented and disjointed (T.S. Eliot, Lessing etc), which suits Internet effusions but not really novels, films, plays.
Anyway, here is a picture of my cat Basil. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sgiG5VhO5y8/SaTqr9T15OI/AAAAAAAAAQw/oqFdw3uGvd0/s1600-h/P1070006.JPG This was taken on Jauary 10, the lawn was still alive.
As a dog person, I have seen this cat, because it is awesome: http://s.buzzfeed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2009/1/28/14/have-you-seen-this-cat-6343-1233170938-6.jpg
As far as Oedipus is concerned the more animated gifs the better. While he’s never showed much interest in television, he very much likes to sit on my lap and check out what’s happening on the webs. I can’t see his pupils widen, as he has his back to me, but I can see his head moving across the page.
Gorgeous kitteh, Kim. As more of a dog person, I find the dog v cat dichotomy fascinating. What does it mean to value one species of animal over another? There’s also a broader question about how and why we choose to share our lives with these beasts that so different from us, yet so close to us.
Laura, it’ll be really hard to to have a cat thread without some vicious form of anti-cattism. Why people bother, I don’t know.
“It’s all dog stuff. (Which is fine.)”
Pun intended?
Everyone seen the latest lolcat? “Ok…I give peas a chance”…
Laura, it is very interesting what you say about the lack of usable cat fiction. I would have said Lessing’s Particularly Cats or one of her others (and you’ve mentioned her, I see), but even the wikipedia entry classifies these as ‘cat tales’ rather than fiction or non-fiction, and I think that is an accurate reflection of the content. They seem to lend themselves to the incidental and episodic.
I can’t say I’ve read any dog fiction, but I agree that cats are incidental and episodic, Klaus!
Sounds like a great course, Laura. There’s some really interesting stuff being written in a lot of disciplines now about human-pet interaction and cultures.
I’m still hoping my phd supervisor one day writes his promised book on cats in Ancient Rome!
This looks like a good one (for the philosophically inclined):
Animal/Human Cultures
And I’m sure you’re all aware of Donna Haraway’s work in this area:
The Companion Species Manifesto
and
When Species Meet
Pun almost certainly unintended (at the conscious level…..!)
This will only make sense to viewers of Dexter, but anyway – the most screwed up of our three current cats, Albie ( http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sgiG5VhO5y8/SXErMLcbUDI/AAAAAAAAAO4/rtRtyKcbtBc/s1600-h/albiecollar.jpg ) has got real issues of all kinds – eating disorders, delusions, paranoia, anxiety, mood swings you name it he’s got it. So as part of the project of trying to make him more comfortable with life, Dorian has given him a Code – don’t freak out, don’t run away, don’t be weird. It really works. When he starts being one of the three we just softly say the Code of Dorian to him and usually he settles down. A bit.
Moderated. That’ll teach me to link to Donna Haraway’s work – with her preference towards the discussion of dogs – on an open cat thread!
Too many links, Klaus! Don’t know if you’ve seen the new Live Theory volume on Haraway – great interview at the end of the book.
The code of Dorian? I have to ask…that’s our son’s name…
No, I haven’t seen it yet, but that is a fairly good series so far. I liked Mark Sanders’ volume on Gayatri Spivak: I appreciated having some of the themes of her recent work drawn out in a more comprehensible way.
Recent Haraway material is on my ‘To Read’ list, but given that semester has begun and I find myself with another sessional contract, I may be reading her later rather than sooner.
Laura, one of my cats is a bit like your Albie – hates being picked up, hates everyone, has to be introduced to her meals fairly gradually, really hypervigilant. We re-named her Geoffrey the Serial Cat, because she took to surrounding her bed with mouse heads for a while.
The poor little thing had weed smoke blown in her face by the idiot girlfriend-at-the-time of one of my sons, and she’s never really recovered. (The cat, not the girlfriend.)
Laura, was it you that posted that picture of Doris Lessing with her cat?
I found the Badiou book really helpful too, Klaus, when I was first trying to work him out. Helfpul suggestion at my Doctoral final seminar from the panel – not the book, look at Badiou that is…
Anyway, probs off topic!
Joining in the spirit of the feline gallery, here are my cats Madam and Poppet, whose names emerged organically, as it were, from their behaviour. (‘Get down off the chandelier at once, madam!’ ‘Come on, little poppet, come on out from behind the piano.’ Etc.) No prizes for guessing which is which, even from the back. Zoe‘s caption for this photo: ‘Tails. We has them.’
Years and years ago when I was an impecunious poet/actor/playwright/all round arts person living in Kings Cross I had a black cat that used to prefer sliced (red)tomato to meat. Not to fish though.
Cats probably like computers because they have attention-deficit-disorder.
wizofaus, Dorian is my partner’s name too.
The Companion Species Manifesto is beautifully written.
Fine is actually the name of the first racehorse I ever looked after. Lousy racehorse, but he was so pretty and sweet natured that he ended up having a happy life siring show horses.
My wife and I are owned by 3 very cuddly cats. After the third one arrived we had to buy a bigger bed so everyone could sleep comfortably.
Does anyone else have a Roomba? Ours cats haven’t ridden ours yet, but one does like to run around in front of it and attempt to get run over – I think she’s hoping it will chase her – she’s a Bengal and very very energetic.
Laura — some suggestions for your cat syllabus (apologies if you already thought of these)…
Natsume Soseki, “I Am A Cat”
Christopher Smart, “For I will consider my cat Geoffrey” (aka Jubilate Agno, I think) (I always wanted someone to set this to music)
There’s also a famous cat-centric ghost story usually known as “Wait Til Max Comes”
And of course, one of the greatest art works of the 20th C was all about a cat… I refer of course to George Herriman’s mind-blowing “Krazy Kat.”
David, a friend of a friend of mine had a Jack Russell puppy that ate his stash—about a hundred bucks’ worth. They rushed it to the vet who checked it out, and it was fine after about three days of sleeping and stumbling about. It was like watching an old, old, fat Labrador in the puppy’s body.
PC, there are two cats in my street who live next door to each other, who spend a lot of their time watching each other suspiciously on either side of a long chainlink fence. I don’t know what their owners call them, but I always greet them as “Ossi” and “Wessi”. Organic names are always the best.
Oh, and one more is the Frank O’Hara poem “Chez Jane” which is all about a cat. And in the Stevens poem “A Rabbit as King of Ghosts,” the antagonist is a cat.
Speaking of the effects of weed on cats…
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/us-man-stuffs-cat-in-marijuana-pipe-20090303-8mwc.html
Tina we named before we’d even left the parking lot of the Cat Haven, because she’s mostly black, had clearly raised a brood at some point, had suffered domestic abuse of some kind at the paws of an ‘Ike’ figure (we can only presume), and as soon as she was shut in the car started up a yowling but excellent rendition of Private Dancer.
Exactly why she chose to name her pet (a water snail fond of mating with his/herself) after Cindy Lauper we can only guess.
The less said about Commander Riker and Kerry O’Brien the goldfish, the better.
Since this is the interwebs, the question must be asked:
Who would win in a fight – ninja kittens or pirate kittens?
Mercurius, all kittens are ninja.
I beg to differ
Norman Lindsay wrote great letters about his cats; and also of course had many wonderful sketches and paintings of them.
Also look up Robert Westall who has several stories and novels which feature cats. One is entirely about a cat (Blitzcat).
Thanks jpz, I love jubilate agno but it was disqualified on other grounds (pre-Romantic)
The internets just does cat stories so effortlessly. (exhibit a = Cat Town.
Why is that.
You could always make them read “The Cat Who …” series Laura.
I just saw a book called Catopolis at my favourite sf store, Pulp Fiction. Was on the way to the train so didn’t really have time to browse, but it’s interesting that it’s a collection of thematically linked short stories:
http://www.amazon.com/Catopolis-Martin-H-Greenberg/dp/0756405149
Liam, I think cats “cope” with weed rather differently to dogs. My poor little cat is actually quite loopy.
$500 on the ninjas.
OMG! My favourite is definitely the kitty emerging from the body of a chicken.
I’ll have a piece of that PC.
Check out teh pyrit bording skillz.
Meet Global Financial Crisis Cat
I like this thread much more than the twitter ones.
Sky Cat And The World of Today. aka The Pussy Has Landed.
Hemingway’s Short Happy Life of francis Macomber.” (If my memory serves me right he’s eaten by a lion.)
Ours are getting cuter and cuter.
Ninja cats FTW.
Terry Pratchett’s “The Unadulterated Cat”.
Hilarious and very accurate. I came across a Quantum Cat the other week in a Melbourne bookstore. Appeared wherever I was with no visible movement, must have a prob. dist. that goes across several floors (popped into view on an upstairs balcony 30 seconds after I left it at the front door of the shop, 3 flights down). Either that or it was L-space at work.
Will try to find a classic photo of a friends cat in the lab, naturally wearing special safety goggles, sitting in front of the PC reviewing GC-MS results. Came close to causing an “incident” when tried he to chase the autosampler
Don’t forget Matthew Flinders’ cat memoir.
And here’s the tribute letter itself:
I think Spinifex has published a book by Australian women writers who talk about their pets, or maybe it was exclusively dogs, I remember flipping through it sometime.
We had a cat for 17 years, actually it was my daughter’s cat she promised when she got him to take him with her when she left home but she accidentally ‘forgot’.
He ruled our house with imperious arrogance, we were his ‘staff’.
But we loved him although respected and admired may be more appropriate words, you gotta respect an animal trhat can so efficienly bend humans to his will, to satisfy his needs NOW!!!
Now we have hannah the pure bred mongrel dog the idol of our eyes a loved equal partner in our trio. We have been accused of being ‘besotted’ with her and have become somewhat the epitome of the ‘mature’ couple who have gotseen their kids off on their indepent journey through life and turned to a dog so as to have an object of affection [besides each other of course].
And it strikes us as how wonderfully efficient hannah is at getting us to satisfy her every whim, equally as efficient as the imperious cat but using a totally different method.
Emotional blackmail.
She could teach parents whose kids ‘never ring , never visit’ how to blackmail same.
My kids forgot my birthday once some years ago. When I tried emotional blackmail on them it went straight over their heads, their response was ‘Shit happens’ and “Get over it”. { I did get a good prezzy a week later so my sad eyes did have some effect.]
Hannah’s success rate is far higher.
‘I would love it if you were to come outside and play ball with me’ her eyes will say. So I do and the happiness and joy that results is the reward.
Meggs the cat would have demanded and if necessary shown his claws when he wanted something, hannah politely asks.
Different ploy, same result.
The animal gets what they want.
As is right and proper.
Flinder’s letter is also published in book form. (Read his journals and love letters but not the cat letter til now. A delight. Thanks Liam.
Laura,
On a more serious level than the Hemingway suggestion, John Hunter’s First Fleet Journal has quite a few passages in it on animals native and domestic.Tench has a long passage about an emu. Also, Michael Connor (ed.) Pig bites Baby, Stories from Australia’s First Newspaper, Volume 1, 1803-1810 has sections of reasonable length on the following: Animals;Dogs;Pigs;and Snakes and Sharks.
Volume 2 is out,(I think) but I haven’t read it so I can’t recommend it.
There is, of course, that all time great 18C classic, , Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selborne.(readily available in cheap editions. Mine cost me $4.95)
Who has better theme music? Cats?
Or dogs?
Dogs, of course, can boast of “Hound Dog,” “Atomic Dog,” and Zep’s “Black Dog.” Cats, on the other hand, can claim “The Lovecats”. But then, they have Cat Stevens to apologize for. They also have some explaining to do about “Stray Cat Strut,” “Cat Scratch Fever,” and “The Year of the Cat.”
Tuff call.
In the interests of forestalling further suggestions, I thank everyone who’s suggested things, and repeat that it was specifically pet-centred fiction I was looking for, and further it needed to be post-c19, by a woman, and able to stand comparison with works by Virginia Woolf and Doris Lessing. This is why many of the things you’ve mentioned weren’t suitable. But I still think there is surprisingly little cat fiction, and what there is is oddly niche. Compared to, let’s say, Lassie, or Black Beauty.
I always watch this when I’m feeling sad and it cheers me up immensely. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3U0udLH974
J_p_z @ 25, you will find Christopher Smart’s “For I will consider my cat, Geoffrey” in Benjamin Britten’s ‘Rejoice in the Lamb’ choral cantata.
Other musical references to cats: Cat’s Fugue, by Scarlatti, the entrance of the lions from Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, that lovely Cat’s Duet by Rossini, and, of course, Garrison Keillor and Frederika von Stade singing Cats may Safely Sleep (there’s a whole CD’s worth in Keillor’s CD: Songs of the CAT.)
Nobody’s mentioned Andre Norton’s Star Ka’at. I also believe there’s a set of mystery novels with a cat as protagonist.
But I’m not a cat person, nor a dog person — and why is this always the binary anyway? Downright discriminatory against owners of minority animals, I think. Waiting for the guinea-pigs-and-chooks thread.
4 tha kittehs:
Squeeze – Cool for Cats [yay!]
That Boring Guy – Cat’s in the Cradle [boo! hisss!]
Kinks – Phenomenal Cat [yay!!! Double points for Ray Davies involvement]
AL Webber – Cats! [epic boo!!! triple hissss!!!]
Tom Jones – What’s New Pussycat? [yay? boo? ummm...]
4 tha dawgs:
Paw – Jessie [boo! maudlin pap! hissss!!! Double demerit points for band name]
Neil the Canadian – Old King [yay!!]
J Cash Esq – Dirty ol’ Egg-Suckin’ Dog [meh]
Pink Floyd – Dogs [yay! Though non-lovers of indulgent prog may differ]
Nick Drake – Black Eyed Dog [super yay!]
And to wrap it all up, expose the falseness of the dichotomy and mourn the passing of a giant:
Let’s call it a draw.
Sorry to violate your rules Laura, but it’s fit and proper to mention Khat from Randolph Stowe’s Midnite.
A truly excellent feline protagonist.
I ate a kitten for breakfast. Next I’ll be performing an experiment involving a cat I read about on the net: “A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts”. I’ll let you know how my experiment goes.
Oh, my aching sides.
Please, won’t somebody stop the hilarity.
Seriously dude, take this shit on the road. A lucrative career in rib-tickling awaits!
Killing cats! So funny!
I just can’t get over how funny that shit is.
Can’t seem to talk about anything else.
And not lame, predictable or faux-clever ONE LITTLE BIT!!!
How DO you manage such comedic perfection?
Gobsmacked ain’t the half of it. I am in awe of your genius.
Now, I’m no cat person, but for cat literature, you must all read Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog: How We Found the Bishop’s Bird Stump at Last. The star cat in the book is Princess Arjumand, who is a central plot device. Not to mention Cyril the asthmaticious bulldog and a multitude of fish, who are an obsession for several of the characters, including the Princess herself.
Another vote for the guinea-pigs-and-chooks thread.
Meanwhile, japanese cat punk rock band called ‘Don’t Lick Me!’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ngsYHwtb-c
FDB #56
Adrian Belew – Big Electric Cat
Bowie – Cat People
Both
Cramps – Does your pussy do the dog?
In lux memorium
The sea is full of kittens too apparently …
http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/
Liam, 48, thank you for introducing me to Matthew Flinder’s cat, Trim. Such a joy which I shall have to repeat for myself and family by buying the book referred to by Paul. I have myself been re-introduced to the pleasure of cats when two years ago in recent retirement I bought a puppy, more, I thought, for my grandchildren than myself.
I then remembered that my own children had been a given a little grey kitten unexpectedly and unsought by some wise acquaintance who insisted a puppy needed a friend, when I had just bought a new puppy to distract my son and daughter from their grief over our family break-up. I was also trying to appease my newly separated and-soon-to be divorced husband who was a besotted dog lover. I should have understood before this that his failure to commit to a family dog was a failure to commit to family. No matter…..Tippy, the cute little puppy who turned out to be a loyal, loving Pug/Peke and Smokey, his elegant grey feline friend, somehow bound the three of us together through a decade of pain, slog to survive financially, and growth into accepting adolescence for them and successful independence for myself.
I could recount anecdotes about Tippy and Smokey as funny and fond as any told by LP bloggers above, but enough here to say that both my son and daughter still re-tell those stories to the grandchildren with tears and laughter which by far outweigh that long-ago grief about separation and abandonment.
I was glad to learn that Hannah is a dog and I’m sure Hannah’s Dad will know how much comfort I now personally derive from Tacker (a very intelligent and engaging blend of Xsu/Maltese/Terrier) and his friend, Sheba (grey tabby with aristocratic Burmese forebears). I had thought to re-create for my grandchildren the pleasure my own children had with their loving and beloved pets. Instead I have been blessed by their being there just for me, a newly blended family sharing my home, mealtimes and, in the early morning, my bed. How could I have been such a stickler about no animals on beds all those years ago!
Sheba now accompanies Tacker and myself on our morning walk, sometimes stalking behind us and sometimes ambushing us from behind a tree or beneath a parked car along our selected route. She’s learned road sense too and sits with tidy paws with Tacker to make sure the road is clear before crossing at intersections. Tacker is promiscuous with his affections, rolling over for pats and tummy rubs by all and sundry. Sheba, as if knowing she is newsworthy lingers at a discreet distance to listen to curious comments and compliments from passers-by, but resists any too familiar overtures. As she does with me really. Her true friend is Tacker and their enjoyment of each other’s company on their walks together and throughout the day gives me constant pleasure.
Patricia WA — thank you for sharing your reflections on pets and family, very affecting.
Is it an odd coincidence, or just I don’t know what, but ‘Uncle Toby’ and ‘Trim’ are also characters (and in fact companions) in Sterne’s “Tristram Shandy”.
lesleym — thanks for the tip on Britten/Smart, will have to look that one up.
And now for a cat of a different stripe…
j-p-z,
Probably not coincidence. Royal Navy officers of Flinders’ calibre (he was almost in the same class as Cook)in the late 18/early 19C were expected to be very well read, literate, and have an interest in natural science and what eventually became anthropology,and be artistically and mathematically gifted.Men like Flinders, Cook, John Hunter, RN, Arthur Phillip, Vancouver, and dare I say it, Bligh, were all quite exceptional, compared with some of their contemporaries.
barn owl – tick
swallows – tick
mosquito – tick
badger – tick
fox – tick
cricket – tick
catepillar – tick
frog – tick
vixen – tick
eagle – tick
dog – tick
jay – tick
midge – tick
hen – tick
woodpecker – tick
cat – …
Leoš Janáček – it seems – was not feline inclined.
JPZ — Trim was indeed named for the Sterne character: ‘He was named after the butler in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, because Flinders considered him to be a faithful and affectionate friend.’ (See Liam’s link at #47.)
Even a Lateline Business article about the internet – Cat takes a ride – was enough to attract the moggies
When the purr is someone gonna turn the Felidae books into something better than this?
The spirit of Philip Marlowe reincarnated as a cat.
‘Down these mean streets a cat must go who is not himself clean.’
And as someone once observed about Robert Mitchum, “the only barrel-chested macho actor of his generation you could imagine unselfconsciously licking his tail.”
And let us not forget “The Hunting Of Wilberforce Pike” by Molly Lefebure with illustrations by the wonderful Alf Wainwright.
A bunch of cats (and not forgetting Ranjit Singh the mongoose) set out to take down a cat killer and skinner, stalking him through the Lake District to drive him his eventual doom.
And damn my paws and whiskers, I see any copy anywhere offered online of “Wilberforce Pike” is now asking at least 50 pounds.
If I knew Molly and Alf’s surrealistic little masterwork was to become so rare and culty, I’d have never returned the only hardback copy in the South Pacific to Suva’s Carnegie Library.
Well here’s a nice snapshot of the bloke that did the amazing illustrations for a book about the Power House Gang – a bunch of London cats who go up north and have uneasy encounters with their Yorkshire oppos while stalking Wilberforce Pike through Northern fells and tarns.(and not forgetting Ranjit Singh the mongoose)
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/alfred-wainwright-grumpy-reclusive-and-eccentric-496975.html
It’s not great literature, but I’d mention tad Williams’ Tailchaser’s Song.
Five cats live chez Bogan, all permanently confined to barracks, giving Mrs Bogan and I ample opportunity to observe their little quirks and foibles. I find myself constantly amazed at the distinct variations in personality amongst the pride and the extremely complex hierarchical structure that’s developed. The pecking order is not linear (as might be expected) but different individuals have seniority in different areas. Stanley gets first go at the food bowl, for instance, whilst Harold has priority in sleeping spots, and Herbert (the youngest) gets to pounce unreprimanded on Tanza or Lucy with a vigour that would see Stan or Harold severely defluffed and bearing scars.
Of course, sacrifices must be made in order to live in such a feline rich household. Black clothing goes grey almost instantly, no fragile ornaments can be tolerated and life sometimes seems to consist of trips twixt litter tray and dustbin bearing a steaming bag.
They’re worth it though.
Got a dog too, who is a large, grubby, dim but amiable waste of space. Love her too anyway.
Jeez, Intellectual, you’re well into crazy cat lady territory with 5 cats.
Not to one up TIB (though I’m sure he can relate) but my dad had nine!
When he died a few years back, you’ve never seen so many distressed babies (well, six were bloody great toms). That took a lot of explaining and consoling.
Well, we have discovered that the line between “a lot of cats” and “too many cats” lies between four and five cats.
But when they need a responsible home, what can you do?
I once met a woman in Sydney who was rumoured to have 15 cats. But as I never visited where she lived I can’t vouch for that. I did live next door to someone who hsad several frill-necked lizards. I had one once but some-one I was living with with a reptile phobia got some-one who didn’t have a reptile phobia to come and take it away when I was out. Sigh!.
“But when they need a responsible home, what can you do?”
That was pretty much my dad’s attitude.
Laura, Basil looks very much like a cat we had called Dennis. He was an excellent creature and a wonderful mouser. He also ate raw potatoes and polished off a mushroom as big as a dinner plate in our cow yard. Said action didn’t win any brownie points with my father who had his own designs on the fungus. He used to get the dog and me to catch mice in the haystack for him while he supervised. My parents and I were heart-broken when he died of pneumonia at 17.
I had a beautiful very large black and white cat called M’ster who used to leave headless rats beside the bed for me. Unfortunately, at the age of 15 he was skittled on a rat run one rainy night. Soon after, his companion, a labrador cross the same age had to be put down. Our family was devastated.
We now have Nettle, a black menace who divides most of his time between my two sons’ beds. Like almost every cat I’ve ever known, he is of the opinion that he should be lugged everywhere because he’s afraid his legs will wear out. At least, because there’s no haystack, we’re spared the humiliation of having to catch rodents for him. He also accompanies my son when he goes for walks on the jetty and elsewhere.
Paul Burns @ 66 – well, the Admiralty wasn’t going to put a dunce in charge of the C18th equivalent of a ship worth $1B with a trained crew of hundreds worth even more, were they?
Unlike the army of the time, the navy tended to promote men of ability rather than rank (when it was a choice).
True, David, but even so they were still extraordinary men. However, if you want to look for inept commanders, just look at the Admirals in the American War of Independence. (Howe, Hood and Rodney probably excepted. I know Rodney’s controversial, but at his best he was a brilliant fighting Admiral.)
As for the army, because they fought a lost war I think Gage, Howe and Clinton (despite his personality defects) have been consistently underated. Not sure about Cornwallis or Burgoyne. there was some quite bad generalship there.
Best not to start me on the 18C. I can go on boringly for hours. there, I’ve said it.
I’m sure Dick Whittington’s cat would have deigned to dine on sea kittens or an albatross betwixt occidental familiarity and projective oriental commodification, assuming thrice blind mice and dexterity with a carving knife were unavailable.
“Like almost every cat I’ve ever known, he is of the opinion that he should be lugged everywhere because he’s afraid his legs will wear out. ” – LOL!
Paul Burns, my impression of Flinders’ generation and class is that they knew their Sterne almost as well as their Shakespeare, and held him in much greater affection.
Also, a fave farm cat photo: http://drx.typepad.com/psychotherapyblog/images/2007/08/08/cat_photo.jpg
That’s classic Laura.
Look at them standing there on their hind legs, like two little Rory Calhouns.
The black and white one is a dead ringer for my boss Tina.
The only other cat I’ve ever owned (well, he was my sister’s strictly speaking) was a complete legend. Ming the Merciless we called him – found abandoned in a cardboard box in a laneway with the rest of his litter – eyes just opened.
Bit of a fraidy cat with strangers, but incredibly affectionate – yes, even when not angling for a feed. He was a very large tom with a big soft head. Between the ages of two and 6 or so, he sired many a litter (this was the eighties, and neutering wasn’t yet all the rage).
He wound up taking care of that himself. During a massive pitched battle with another tom, he chased it up a tree, then lost grip and gored himself in the goolie area on a stout upwards-pointing twig. One testicle gone, and one hanging out. I swore off tree climbing at that point.
Yeah, you’re right Laura. People of his class who had the inclination were remarkably literate. And who couldn’t like Tristam Shandy. I still remember my amazement the first time I read it.
Re cats. Rev. Richard Johnson brought several cats to NSW when he came here in 1788. They were the progenitors of Australia’s cat population, apparently. And our first feral cats.
And somebody ekse brought a monkey from Cape Town which was famous for sitting on fence posts in the streets of Sydney and doing obscene things in public. If I remember rightly the monkey got an obituary in the Sydney Gazette when he died.