As El Supremo is not around, do you think we can risk a few silly moggy pictures again? This one combines an unhistorical moggy and a quote from the Bible.

I don't think we've had this picture: it's a coffin for a mummified cat. I like its round head/face - another Egyptian cat image which reminds me of a British Blue.

Did you see the story about the man who found an odd shaped bundle in his attic and it turned out to be a mummified cat.


Rather spindly this one, it must be a Katie Kat.

No one had better say that with the mouse away the cats can play.

A Roman brick from Britain, complete with cat paw prints. There must have been quite a few other bricks that the cat walked across, whilst they lay wet and ready for the kiln, that day. But oddly, this particular one has been discovered at Fort Vancouver, USA.

This was on BBC4 last night, in a programme about boxing on film;

Cats! Never let one near your work, you know what will inevitably happen.

Plans for world domination;

This is quite clever;

This is a Horizon programme from last week about cat behaviour;

And the sequel 

Fed up with politicians? Then vote for Morris the cat who's running for mayor in the Mexican city of Xalapa. Vote is on July 7th.

Divine Felines - Cats of Ancient Egypt exhibiton

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/arts/design/divine-felines-cats-of-ancient-egypt-at-the-brooklyn-museum.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=2

I love the title, Divine Felines.

And this lovely cat from ancient Peru
http://boingboing.net/2013/07/31/meet-ancient-perus-own-grump.html

Something I've only just discovered, even after all these years of living here (shame), is that Greece has it's own particular breed of cat named the Aegean, where it is native. Unlike most other cat breeds it is a variety that has developed naturally over time, rather than as a consequence of deliberate interference by humans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegean_cat

Black cat auditions, Hollywood 1961

I think the regal one sitting up straight and no tight leash  with the Queen mit her handbag is best.... surely not a corgi in drag, is it?

Nah, the legs are too long! lol

Priscilla wrote:

I think the regal one sitting up straight and no tight leash  with the Queen mit her handbag is best.... surely not a corgi in drag, is it?

  Doesn't that lady look just like Her Madge, in younger, happier days?

Wonderful picture. The moggies are all remarkably sedate and well-behaved. Perhaps the one being hauled off (by its male owner, to the left) tried - unsuccessfully -  to start a scrap.

Just came across this when looking for a photo for the other thread. From 1933, how did they get the cat to sit there?

The oldest big cat fossil has been found in Tibet;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24913291

Yep, the Chinese did it first, again. Domestication of cats traced to Chinese farmers 5,300yrs ago

http://www.heritagedaily.com/2013/12/cat-domestication-traced-to-chinese-farmers-5300-years-ago/100493

Nice to see the Moggy thread at the top of the list again.

I love this poem by Christopher Smart (1722-71. It was written when he was locked up in the "madhouse", but who cares? It is about his cat, Jeoffry.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/poem/2009/10/in_nomine_patris_et_felis.html


For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.

For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.

For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.

For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.

For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.

For he rolls upon prank to work it in.

For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.

For this he performs in ten degrees.

For First he looks upon his fore-paws to see if they are clean.

For Secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.

For Thirdly he works it upon stretch with the fore-paws extended.

For Fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.

For Fifthly he washes himself.

For Sixthly he rolls upon wash.

For Seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.

For Eighthly he rubs himself against a post.

For Ninthly he looks up for his instructions.

For Tenthly he goes in quest of food.

For having consider’d God and himself he will consider his neighbour.

For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.

For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it chance.

For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.

For when his day’s work is done his business more properly begins.

For he keeps the Lord’s watch in the night against the adversary.

For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.

For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.

For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.

For he is of the tribe of Tiger.

For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.

For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.

For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.

For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he’s a good Cat.

For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.

For every house is incompleat without him and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.

For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt.

For every family had one cat at least in the bag.

For the English Cats are the best in Europe.

For he is the cleanest in the use of his fore-paws of any quadrupede.

For the dexterity of his defence is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.

For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.

For he is tenacious of his point.

For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.

For he knows that God is his Saviour.

For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.

For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.

For he is of the Lord’s poor and so indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually – Poor Jeoffry! poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.

For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better.

For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in compleat cat.

For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in musick.

For he is docile and can learn certain things.

For he can set up with gravity which is patience upon approbation.

For he can fetch and carry, which is patience in employment.

For he can jump over a stick which is patience upon proof positive.

For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.

For he can jump from an eminence into his master’s bosom.

For he can catch the cork and toss it again.

For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.

For the former is affraid of detection.

For the latter refuses the charge.

For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.

For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly,

For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services.

For he killed the Ichneumon-rat very pernicious by land.

For his ears are so acute that they sting again.

For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.

For by stroaking of him I have found out electricity.

For I perceived God’s light about him both wax and fire.

For the Electrical fire is the spiritual substance, which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast.

For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.

For, though he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.

For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadrupede.

For he can tread to all the measures upon the musick.

For he can swim for life.

For he can creep.


So many lovely lines, but this is my favourite:

For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he’s a good Cat.




.

Quote :

For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he’s a good Cat.

 Lovely poem Temp  


Of course, my two don't beiieve in God ....  but then they already know they're both Goddesses!


By the way: When I mentioned recently on another thread that my cats had caught an asp, you asked if I had a cat-flap. No thankfully not, at least not into the house. My cats don't usually come into the house proper: they're more like farm cats, very independent and not overly affectionate especially with strangers or guests. Their principal job, which they do very well, is to catch and dispatch unwanted rodents. They do always have access direct from the outside into the cellar where they have an old sofa next to the heating system and it's here that they sleep all year round, even in the harshest depths of winter. So as I say, thankfully they do not come into the house with their little presents, whether still alive or dead.

I do however have some friends near here who have a rather elderly cat, Dibbles, that suffered a stroke several years ago. Dibbles is still slightly paralysed on one side and has largely lost her sense of balance, but she still gamely totters about in her lopsided way. And she still insists on dragging into the house, through the cat-flap, live adders - big ones too - which she then leaves hissing and writhing on the living room floor! Miraculously she's never been bitten back (or maybe she's become immune, if that's possible) probably because she never plays with them ... she just leaves them as a gift for someone else to deal with .... and I can tell you they do take quite a bit of "dealing with"!

I'm not at all keen on snakes (just a slight under-statement!) and so frankly I'd be horrified if my two did anything like that.
 

MM wrote:

Of course my two don't believe in God...

I'm sure Jeoffry (or indeed Bosworth) would respect their opinions, MM, and would not try to convert them...     (No doubt they would beat him up if he tried.   )

Cats were considered heretical creatures according to an article by Irina Metzler (Heretical Cats: Animal Symbolism in Religious Discourse):



http://www.medievalists.net/2013/10/02/why-cats-were-hated-in-medieval-europe/



Heretical religious groups, such as the Cathars and Waldensians, were accused by Catholic churchmen of associating and even worshipping cats. When the Templars were put on trial in the early fourteenth-century, one of the accusations against them was allowing cats to be part of the services and even praying to the cats. Witches too, were said to be able to shape-shift into cats, which led to Pope Innocent VIII declaring in 1484 that “the cat was the devil’s favourite animal and idol of all witches.”


Interestingly, medieval Muslims favoured cats - seems the Prophet himself had been a cat-lover:


Moreover, medieval Muslims were very fond of cats. A few accounts from early Islam suggest that the Prophet Muhammad and other figures liked cats and treated them well. Perhaps the cleanliness of cats was highly appealing to Muslims. In medieval Middle Eastern cities you could even find charities that took care of streets cats. One European pilgrim who traveled to the Middle East even noted that among the differences between Muslims and Christians was that “They like cats, while we like dogs.”

I very much doubt that my cat would spraggle upon waggle on command, whatever that means, she will do nothing on command unless there's something, usually an Aldi's cat stick, in it for her. In fact I suspect that cats have domesticated us rather than the other way round. I read somewhere that cats, in the wild, rarely meow, it's something they've learned to do when issuing their commands to us, disguised as pleas.

I think there's a lot of truth in that ferval .... my two are generally silent when they're doing things either on their own or together (they're mother and daughter). They rarely meeow to the dog, since he isn't going to give them anything, and they never meeow to each other, except when play fighting or when one of them has caught something: then they make a very distinctive sound which I guess is either, "come here I've got us some food", or "whay hey! aren't I clever". They are only really vocal when I'm around and they want something from me whether it's food or just attention. So who is really in command?

ferval wrote:

I very much doubt that my cat would spraggle upon waggle on command, whatever that means, she will do nothing on command unless there's something, usually an Aldi's cat stick, in it for her. In fact I suspect that cats have domesticated us rather than the other way round. I read somewhere that cats, in the wild, rarely meow, it's something they've learned to do when issuing their commands to us, disguised as pleas.

No one seems to know what "spraggle upon waggle" means; but it is a lovely expression.

Cats don't love us at all, and we are fooling ourselves if we think they do: we are just meal tickets. Didn't the Horizon programme, The Secret Life of Cats, prove that? You posted the link to the sequel of Secret Life, ferval, which looked at this question, but the video unfortunately  "doesn't exist" any more. I seem to remember the programme's researchers concluded  that dogs really are devoted to their owners, whereas cats - even the best of them - think we are all idiots.

Is owning a serial killer pet really a moral dilemma for some people? (Even the saintly Jeoffry was a mouse-murderer, despite Smart's belief that his pet only tortured his victims before dispatching them just to give them a fair chance of escape.) According to this Guardian article some folk do worry:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/01/ethics-keeping-killer-cat?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

That one is a bit of a moral maze if I'm honest. I dutifully hang up food for the birds, which keeps the local moggies amused, but I do so where the hooded claws can't get at them. My homicidal companion isn't as effective as she used to be, I've only had one very small mouse brought home in almost a year and since it appeared unharmed I was able to rescue and liberate it.

A serial killer pet? Is that the new pc term for the perfectly natural behaviour of a carnivore? Dogs are also, and can quickly revert to hunting and killing given half the chance. In Australia the farmers around our town were always complaining about people who didn't keep their dogs locked in their yards, as packs of 'town' dogs on the loose would raid farms at night and have a wow of a time killing sheep, lambs and calfs, not necessarily to eat but just for the fun of it.

When cats can be convinced to abide by the Marquess of Queensberry Rules then their differences can be sorted out like gentlemen. I found this footage of Professor Welton and his pugilist pussies from 1894 while checking out some old Edison prints.

Referring back to the Christian Church in former times having taken a dim view of cats (I apologise if this was mentioned on an earlier variant of Moggy Thread)  there is an old Irish poem said to have been written by a monk about his cat Pangur Ban. I heard that Irish children sometimes study this, though not having been to school in Ireland I can't vouchsafe for that fact. Of course if it was written before the Synod of Whitby the monk would have belonged to the old Celtic Church which had some differences to the mainstream Catholic Church.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangur_B%C3%A1n

Thank you for that, LiR. I had never heard of Pangur Ban before I read your post: if he has been mentioned on one of the Moggy threads, I have missed it.

Here is Auden's translation of the poem:


Pangur, white Pangur, How happy we are
Alone together, scholar and cat
Each has his own work to do daily;
For you it is hunting, for me study.
Your shining eye watches the wall;
My feeble eye is fixed on a book.
You rejoice, when your claws entrap a mouse;
I rejoice when my mind fathoms a problem.
Pleased with his own art, neither hinders the other;
Thus we live ever without tedium and envy.

A couple of other versions here:


http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/pangur.html

Here is the Robin Flower version (my favourite):

The scholar and his cat, Pangur Bán

(from the Irish by Robin Flower)

I and Pangur Ban my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He too plies his simple skill.

'Tis a merry task to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our task we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.

Some feline fury;

It seems that the Cats Protection (league) is now Fat Cats Protection as many cutbacks  might  otherwise dent their £62 million reserved for maintaining staff  and plush new offices. 13 centres to close - but not profitable shops and mailing constant demands for bequests and donations for suffering moggies' care in remote places. After this report the bequests might dry up - they have already lost millions invested in Iceland. Ah well, charity begins...... as in Alice Through the Cat Flat.

I got my cat from the local branch of Cats Protection two years ago last October.  I think that being in a provincial town the branch set-up is more basic.  I did have a lady come round to see me at home - to check what the circumstances would be like for the cat I guess.  Most of the local Cats Protection people seem to be volunteers.  The lady who was the "foster mother" to my cat did have a part-time job but it was not with Cats Protection.  I was asked for a £20 donation when I took on the cat - to be fair costs are rising and were 2 years ago and maybe they thought people who would be willing to pay £20 were more likely to be making a genuine commitment to the animal.  I'm sure my cat doesn't think I did her a favour by taking her in though - she thinks gosh aren't I lucky to have her ......

The local branches have to raise most of their own funding - and rely heavily on volunteers - many of whom are a tad fed up with news of £62 mil stashed away to keep the main offices going. Some cat-like tendencies seem to have rubbed off.....  as you being a paid up cat saviour, LIR, will appreciate.

That damned cat! 

http://io9.com/this-medieval-manuscript-curses-the-cat-who-peed-on-it-1502884468?f

Paul Klee: Cat and Bird

Remember the thread about Knights and Snails from the Middle Ages? Well, check this out, cats with rocket packs in the 16th Century;

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/objects-of-intrigue-rocket-cats

Trike, that is interesting (to me at least)  ... and I think it deserves a new thread of it's own, no?

Poor cats - and birds. Still warfare has never been a nice business.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Poor cats - and birds. Still warfare has never been a nice business.

Really upsetting, but it was a cruel time - for animals and for humans. Poor moggies.

plus ca change .....
http://gizmodo.com/the-pigeon-guided-missiles-and-bat-bombs-of-world-war-i-1477007090