Larry has reshuffled Palmerston: sent him to the Isle of Dogs.

Trump may come to regret sneering at the location of the new US Embassy in London. Battersea has produced some magnificent Brits:

I am shocked and saddened to read that Larry has been accused of sexual misconduct.


Disgraced veteran mouser, Larry, the Downing Street Cat, on Friday admitted that there was "some truth" in the allegations of bullying and of sexual misconduct that were levelled against him earlier in the week.

In a statement, he apologised to the other cats, whose experiences were reported by Cat Monthly Magazine on Tuesday.

The Downing Street cat added: “The power I had over these other cats is that they were a bit smaller than me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.”


Larry has at least responded honestly to his accusers, and with some attempt at dignity and remorse. He says that since he was "taken to the vets" in 2007, he has done nothing of which he is ashamed. Can all Government cats, notably the one at the Foreign Office, say the same? Palmerston?

Larry's performance - with reference to the superior skills of a certain member of the Foreign Office staff - was the subject of a piece (page 2) in The Sunday Times yesterday. There was also a short editorial (with the corny heading of Moggie (sic) may give us paws) on page 22.

May I point out that I was writing about all this here on Res Historica's Moggy thread months ago? I want a job on The Sunday Times.

EDIT: And ferval - also ages ago - mentioned the threat to Larry from that ridiculous Jacob Rees-Moggie.

You read it here first.

They are wittering on again today about Brexit at Number 10. Larry has tweeted that he is "under the table". I bet he is, too.

Unhappy Larry:

Larry meets the Japanese

Oh, Larry, Larry, you foolish cat. When will you ever learn? You have just cost the British economy billions.

And Palmerston, of course, was already preparing to butter up the Japanese last summer.

According to the DM - so it may be fake news - Larry has had minor surgery on an old war wound from undiplomatic incident with You Know Who of next door. He has been ordered two days bed rest but one assumes he is nocturnal. Does No 10 have a front door cat flap? Who lets him in or out? Is there an appointed Larrex flunkey? As ever the govt never gives out enough information.

"Catchin' mice round t'mill were good enough for me and you're granddad, but not for you. No, no, you want t' ponce of to London and go mousin' round Drury Lane"

Yorkishire cats go to London

Larry and Palmerston have been fighting again - another terrible and undignified brawl was reported as happening yesterday morning. Larry does not seem able to cope anymore: he lost a lot of fur in this latest altercation, and his UK collar was ripped off and left lying in the dust of Downing Street. The Evening Standard is reporting that many people see all this as a sad metaphor for Brexit:


A Brexit Metafur

Medieval marginalia are always entertaining, I like this one of a cat besieged in a castle by mice.



And although not a moggy I like the expression on the face of the dragon. Note how he is presumably being punished by having his tail tied in a knot.

Meles meles wrote:

Medieval marginalia are always entertaining, I like this one of a cat besieged in a castle by mice.



And although not a moggy I like the expression on the face of the dragon. Note how he is presumably being punished by having his tail tied in a knot.

Any cat with a magnificent tail (see below) - like my neighbours' Maine Coon (the bane of Bosworth's life) - will sympathise with the unfortunate dragon.

I loved those pictures, MM - thank you for posting them. The besieged medieval moggy picture should be tweeted to Larry the Cat at once. I think he would respond. I want copies for my 2018 Christmas cards.



It seems magnificent tails are a liability in this world (and possibly the next), whether one is a dragon or a moggy.

Some more medieval moggies:

I have tweeted Larry the Cat with your medieval moggies pictures, plus link to Res His. The powerful feline has not, as yet, responded.

From the Daily Mash;

Cat to lose it

I should have posted this yesterday - cats against patriarchy.

Cat voted Man of the Match:

Besiktas vs Bayern

Can the chaos, the tension and the uncertainty here get any worse? The chairman of the 1922 committee has received 47 letters: just one more and it could be that Larry will be on his way out and either Palmerston or - God forbid - El Gato will move to Number 10.

The temperature hasn't dropped below 90 degrees for days now; a crisis in UK government is rapidly developing; and we still have Wednesday night to get through. We can't take much more.

EDIT: Just in case friends who live in foreign parts do not know what is happening here: David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, has resigned and Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary and Palmerston's boss, has also just quit (handed his resignation letter to the Prime Minister half an hour before she had to face a packed House of Commons - what a dirty Machiavellian so-and-so the man is, buffoon or no); it's also ridiculously hot in our "temperate" country (we can't cope with extreme weather); and we are playing Croatia in the semi-final on Wednesday. Too much excitement for us Brits.

A tweet from Number 10:


Larry the Cat‏ @Number10cat · 1hour ago  


At this moment of uncertainty for the Government I want to reassure you all that I’m going nowhere; I’m in comfy spot so there’s no chance I’m moving.


Thank goodness for that: stability at last in our unhappy land.

Temperance,

"EDIT: Just in case friends who live in foreign parts do not know what is happening here: David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, has resigned and Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary and Palmerston's boss, has also just quit (handed his resignation letter to the Prime Minister half an hour before she had to face a packed House of Commons - what a dirty Machiavellian so-and-so the man is, buffoon or no); it's also ridiculously hot in our "temperate" country (we can't cope with extreme weather); and we are playing Croatia in the semi-final on Wednesday. Too much excitement for us Brits."

from my table C° F° I see that it is only 85 for days overhere at the other side of the channel...
And I think the Belgian devils will win Tuesday on France and the Brits will win on Croatia...have now to ask Vizzer...I suppose then the Belgians have to play against Britain (or is it England? The Brits are as complex as the Belgians...) and the Belgians can't win two times against Britain/England...So England champion...that's a sweet revenge against the Russians for steeling the World Cup from London...

Kind regards from Paul.

There has been some panic here in Brexitland recently. Apparently if we crash out of Europe without a "deal" (something that even the Governor of the Bank of Poundland now fears is likely), we are all going to starve to death, or die from lack of necessary medicines (not to mention just being too hot). It is a gloomy prospect. Larry has sent a rather pathetic tweet to the manufacturers of his favourite snack, Dreamies, asking for immediate clarification and reassurance:

Dear @DreamiesUK
What impact would a no deal Brexit have on your ability to supply your tasty, treats in the UK? Asking for a friend...

Are Dreamies imported from Europe then? Apparently they make cats behave like crack addicts; Larry would therefore be better off without these pernicious European  "treats". Palmerston is also reported to be a helpless addict. Not sure about the Treasury cat, Gladstone, but he probably is probably hooked, too.



These once-proud British Whitehall moggies, Guardians of the State, are now reduced to begging Jean-Claude Juncker for mercy - and a constant supply of Dreamies: it is a shameful state of affairs. Can we not produce our own cat treats?

I can't answer about the Dreamies, Temperance.  Do they have cat mint in them?  I once tried to grow some cat mint but once I transferred it into the garden the neighbourhood moggies came and rolled in it and killed it off.  Pebbles (my cat - or am I her human?) has like me been feeling drained in the hot summer.  I live in what was my parents' house and she has discovered that she can get some respite from the heat if she goes into the old coal bunker.  Trouble is there is still after all these years the remnant (remnants?) of some coal in it so if she lies in there she comes out looking dirty (especially the white bits - she's tortie and white).

Bosworth once came home covered in manure which was particularly annoying.

Main danger around here for an unwary moggy is falling into a slurry pit. It's not the possibility of drowning in the mucky mixture that is the problem: the fumes that are given off by slurry can kill a small animal in seconds. There is no such thing as a safe slurry pit - for man or moggy.

Temperance wrote:

Bosworth once came home covered in manure which was particularly annoying.

Main danger around here for an unwary moggy is falling into a slurry pit. It's not the possibility of drowning in the mucky mixture that is the problem: the fumes that are given off by slurry can kill a small animal in seconds. There is no such thing as a safe slurry pit - for man or moggy.

Yes Temperance, several deaths overhere from entering to early a tank, any tank from slurry, fuel of whatever substance evaporating
toxic fumes. As precaution airing first with  compressed air and even after that you can have pockets where there is still gas...and that is when the tank is empty...when filled the only way is to enter with a pressurized "suit?"...

Kind regards from Paul.

Today is International Cat Day

nordmann debunked one of my cherished myths on the myths debunking thread - I mentioned it on said thread, namely that Isaac Newton did not invent the cat door.  A link to a photo of a door with a cat hole in the Walters Museum, Baltimore.  It is said to date from circa 1450-1500 so must have originated this side "of the pond"  https://art.thewalters.org/detail/18381/door-with-cat-hole/  And the words from The Miller's Tale from Master Chaucer himself.  

"But al for noght, he herde nat a word;
An hole he fond, ful lowe upon a bord,
There as the cat was wont in for to crepe;
And at that hole he looked in full deep"

Edited: tried to link to the full Sparks notes version of the poem and its transcript in modern English but the link doesn't work properly.



I don't know if any legends of how tabby cats got their stripes have been posted here but I'm putting a link to an article about tabby cats (you have to read quite far down) with a couple of legends on the subject - a Christian one (apocryphal of course) and an Islamic one:-  https://domesticcatworld.com/tabby-cat

LadyinRetirement wrote:

nordmann debunked one of my cherished myths on the myths debunking thread - I mentioned it on said thread, namely that Isaac Newton did not invent the cat door.

Oh, pooh - nordmann's always going about debunking everyone's cherished myths: it's his hobby. No doubt he has claimed elsewhere that Plato invented the cat flap.

However, the Christians invented the feline flap - or door rather - the most famous being the one at Exeter Cathedral. Here is the legendary Pebbles (same name as your moggy, I believe!), the current occupant of the Throne of Exeter. This important entrance to the Clock Tower dates from medieval times, although some claim it is later.




PS Here is a little carving of Tom, also in the Cathedral. Tom, a former incumbent, lost an eye in a fight with an owl over a rat caught in the Clock Tower. The owl won.

Thanks Temperance, sadly the carving of Tom only appears as a tiny little square but I was able to use Google and see the original.  Yes, my cat is called Pebbles (currently sleeping; well she's 15 now).  She does perk up sometimes and get lively though.

I thought the whole 'point' of the Isaac Newton/cat-flap story was that when he was at Trinity College Cambridge, his cat had kittens so he decided he needed to cut an additional smaller hole in his door for the little ones, only later realising his foolishness - and so the moral of the story as it is usually re-told today is that even great minds sometimes have have foolish "d'oh!" moments. The original story of course may well be apocryphal, although a member of Trinty College recounting the tale in 1827 added: "Whether this account be true or false, indisputably true is it that there are in the door to this day two plugged holes of the proper dimensions for the respective egresses of cat and kitten."

Isaac Newton's cat was apparently called 'Spithead' and so would appear to have been patriotically named in much the same manner as Temp's 'Bosworth', but I confess I'm a bit disappointed that he didn't name her something like 'Gravitum', 'Orbit', 'Fluxion', or even 'Leibniz'.

Could IN's cat have been named thus because cats sometimes spit?  My cat is quite a placid moggy but even she has her moments (like when she has her annual MOT at the vet's).  Anyway, keeping it brief, I've found another example of an olde-worlde cat hole from Chethams Library in Manchester.  [url=library.chethams.com/blog/whos-been-eating-my-book/]library.chethams.com/blog/whos-been-eating-my-book/[/url]

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Could IN's cat have been named thus because cats sometimes spit?  My cat is quite a placid moggy but even she has her moments (like when she has her annual MOT at the vet's).  Anyway, keeping it brief, I've found another example of an olde-worlde cat hole from Chethams Library in Manchester.  [url=library.chethams.com/blog/whos-been-eating-my-book/]library.chethams.com/blog/whos-been-eating-my-book/[/url]

Lady,

I tried to let the entry appear...
http://library.chethams.com/blog/whos-been-eating-my-book/


Kind regards from Paul.

As I say I am going to try and at least ration my YouTube activity I've been looking for a meme I found of Grumpy Cat saying "That's enough internet today".  No luck, but here is a clip of Grumpy Cat taking on Hollywood - 

A bit late replying to Temperance's question regarding the provenance of Dreamies, but I bought a packet for Pebbles today and it says they are by Mars Ireland in Dublin which is in the EU, so yes they do come from within the European Union.

Unlike Temperance, I don't know how to insert pictures but a link to Twitter - going by the entries of 4 hours ago and 9 hours ago the missing Gladstone has returned to the Treasury.  https://twitter.com/treasurymog?lang=en

Over the weekend 15th-16th September 2018 Gladstone the Treasury cat went absent without leave and there was some concern expressed as to what might have happened to him but he turned up again on Monday.  My cat went missing a few years ago (I think I mentioned it here at the time) when she escaped from her carrying-box (not the proper name but I can't think of it at the moment) on the way to the vet's but I did get her back 11 and a half hours later though it did upset me.  Many years earlier another little she-cat I had disappeared over night.  I hadn't had her "fixed" so long story short (she did return on the morrow) she had been with a male pussy cat and had some kittens.  Once the kittens were weaned/homed I made sure she had the snip though and she did live for 19 years.

A couple of Dutch internet stars.  If I'm doing a particularly boring piece of typing and I don't "take 5" to mosey over to Res Hist, I sometimes watch a short video of what Smoothie and Milkshake get up to.

Now, I haven't been all the way back through the moggy thread(s) so apologies if something like this has been posted before.  The link I am providing is to a fairly recent (September) entry from the Postal Museum's blog.  It tells of cats on UK stamps (they only seem to have appeared relatively recently) https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/cats-on-stamps/

Further to the discussion on another thread about 'cats and sows' as medieval seige machines ... I stumbled upon this intriguing picture:




This, and similar illustrations, occur in manuals about explosives and warfare from the 16th and 17th centuries. The immediate originator of the idea behind these flaming cats was Franz Helm of Cologne, an artillery master in the service of various German princes during the mid-16th century. He wrote a treatise on siege warfare and artillery (Buch von den probierten Künsten) that circulated widely in manuscript, but was not published in print until 1625.

The images appear to show rocket-propelled cats but actually as the accompanying caption explains they were, "To set fire to a castle or city which you can’t get at otherwise." And then in greater detail the author adds: "Create a small sack like a fire-arrow … bind the sack to the back of the cat, ignite it…and thereafter let the cat go, so it runs to the nearest castle or town, and out of fear it thinks to hide itself where it ends up in barn hay or straw it will be ignited."

He also suggested bird bombs too:



It does seem rather fanciful and un-necessarily cruel ... but wasn't there also a suggestion to use incendary pigeons during WW2? The problem as I recall with the pigeons was that they kept coming back home!

That picture really upsets me, MM.  I like cats - though I think I have heard of this idea before (and found it equally upsetting then). Wasn't there something on a thread at one time about one of the American undercover agencies having mooted using spy cats?  Though there was a film called That Darn Cat based on a book called Undercover Cat where a kidnap victim put her watch around a cat's neck to communicate with the outside world.  In this clip (trailer from the 1995 remake which I didn't see) DC (the cat) enters through a cat door worthy of any medieval cathedral or library.  

It upsets me too, LiR. If anyone did that to Bosworth, I'd report them to the Inquisition and have them burnt at the stake - see how they like it.

There wouldn't have been any guarantee that the cat would even have made for the castle would there?

The version of That Darn Cat that I did see was the 1965 version with Hayley Mills.  Again I have found a trailer clip.  The book was a bit darker than the Disney film (not as in Emile Zola dark) and in the book the main protagonist was the older sister whereas in the film they made it the younger sister (probably because of the age group they wanted to appeal to).  

Meles meles wrote:

Further to the discussion on another thread about 'cats and sows' as medieval seige machines ... I stumbled upon this intriguing picture:




This, and similar illustrations, occur in manuals about explosives and warfare from the 16th and 17th centuries. The immediate originator of the idea behind these flaming cats was Franz Helm of Cologne, an artillery master in the service of various German princes during the mid-16th century. He wrote a treatise on siege warfare (Buch von den probierten Künsten) and artillery that circulated widely in manuscript, but was not published in print until 1625.

The images appear to show rocket-propelled cats but actually as the accompanying caption explains they were, "To set fire to a castle or city which you can’t get at otherwise." And then in greater detail the author adds: "Create a small sack like a fire-arrow … bind the sack to the back of the cat, ignite it…and thereafter let the cat go, so it runs to the nearest castle or town, and out of fear it thinks to hide itself where it ends up in barn hay or straw it will be ignited

It does seem rather fanciful ... but wasn't there a suggestion to use incendary pigeons during WW2? The problem as I recall was that they kept coming back home!

Meles meles,

no pigeons but Russian dogs used as antitank weapons during WWII
https://www.rbth.com/history/329005-soviets-used-suicide-dogs

From the link:
"The anti-tank dogs were trained to crawl under enemy tanks while carrying explosives on their bodies (12 kg of TNT). A long lever set off an explosion upon contact with the target.
The dogs were instructed how to climb under tanks. They were starved for several days, and pieces of meat were placed under practice tanks to fool the dogs into thinking that food could be found under all tanks. They were also taught not to fear heavy artillery, and were trained to crawl under the back of a tank to avoid fire from enemy machine guns."

I hope Temperance will not burn me at the stake...

Kind regards to both from Paul.

Meles meles wrote:

Further to the discussion on another thread about 'cats and sows' as medieval seige machines ... I stumbled upon this intriguing picture:




This, and similar illustrations, occur in manuals about explosives and warfare from the 16th and 17th centuries. The immediate originator of the idea behind these flaming cats was Franz Helm of Cologne, an artillery master in the service of various German princes during the mid-16th century. He wrote a treatise on siege warfare (Buch von den probierten Künsten) and artillery that circulated widely in manuscript, but was not published in print until 1625.

The images appear to show rocket-propelled cats but actually as the accompanying caption explains they were, "To set fire to a castle or city which you can’t get at otherwise." And then in greater detail the author adds: "Create a small sack like a fire-arrow … bind the sack to the back of the cat, ignite it…and thereafter let the cat go, so it runs to the nearest castle or town, and out of fear it thinks to hide itself where it ends up in barn hay or straw it will be ignited

It does seem rather fanciful ... but wasn't there a suggestion to use incendary pigeons during WW2? The problem as I recall was that they kept coming back home!

Meles meles,

no pigeons but Russian dogs used as antitank weapons during WWII
https://www.rbth.com/history/329005-soviets-used-suicide-dogs

From the link:
"The anti-tank dogs were trained to crawl under enemy tanks while carrying explosives on their bodies (12 kg of TNT). A long lever set off an explosion upon contact with the target.
The dogs were instructed how to climb under tanks. They were starved for several days, and pieces of meat were placed under practice tanks to fool the dogs into thinking that food could be found under all tanks. They were also taught not to fear heavy artillery, and were trained to crawl under the back of a tank to avoid fire from enemy machine guns."

I hope Temperance will not burn me at the stake...

Kind regards to both from Paul.

I do not intend to burn anyone at the stake, Paul, but there are times - as yesterday, when I read about, and saw images of, the cruelty done to helpless creatures - that I hate human beings.

Men! The only animal in the world to fear! (D. H. Lawrence Mountain Lion)

Moving on from all the horror above - it has been suggested that Number 10 Cat, Larry, should appear on the new £50 note. A splendid idea. Palmerston can go on the back of the 5p coin (if they can fit him on it; he's grown so portly).

That's a good one Tri. Much appreciated.

Regards from Paul.

As the saying goes....... Cats' have staff:

Larry gets police assistance

At least someone in government is still strong and stable.

Larry tweeted yesterday (13 Dec) : This does seem to be quite a lot of fuss about who gets to be my housekeeper...



As has been said before, dogs have owners but cats have staff.

With reference to Larry's antics and musings there used to be a shop in my town that sold sundry articles (I suppose a modern version of a "junk shop") though it has closed now.  One of the items on sale was a placard saying "This is the cat's house - I just pay the mortgage"

Larry - a worthy public servant if ever there was one - has shamefully been omitted (yet again!) from the New Year's Honours List.

Larry's suggestion that the draft of the Brexit deal should be used to line his litter tray was apparently not well received by the boss:



Larry the Cat
‏

@Number10cat
Dec 28
More Larry the Cat Retweeted Cabinet Office

While I’d like to think I’ll finally be given my knighthood, I suspect they’ll be saved for Tory MPs who’ve miraculously changed their mind to vote for Theresa’s Brexit deal...



PS One of Larry's tweets was actually read out in the House of Commons during the recent rowdy "debating" sessions in the House. I wonder what Palmerston (the original one, not the Foreign Office moggy), Gladstone and Disraeli would make of this were they with us today? What does it say about us as the cradle of democracy (or was that the Greeks - did they have political animals, too?)?

I used to know a couple who had some cats called Gladstone and Disraeli (can't remember offhand why they chose the names) - Disraeli was shortened to Dizzie though.  I haven't been made a Dame either Temperance, so there's me and Larry both unrecognised.