It looks like my kitty has gone.

Sorry to hear that LiR - I know she was 'only' a cat but it's always sad when they go.

Thank you for your kind thoughts, MM.  I'd not long given her a hot water bottle wrapped up to lie on and of course I wonder now should I have coaxed her to try to eat the last couple of days and did moving her (albeit gently) to put the bottle down hasten things.  She was very pitiful yesterday though - dragging herself around and resting before she moved again.  The vet had said if she didn't improve very soon last time I saw him she might need to be put out of her misery so I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision.  In Haughton one of the outlying villages (of my town though not in my direction) there is a memorial to a cat in the church.  Like many villages Haughton has grown - I think some of the villages in France have lost their character less than in the UK.

Oh LiR, I am sorry. Here is a lovely poem by Christopher Smart: "For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry". I hope you like it and find some comfort in Smart's observations of his much-loved moggy. 

I hope the line "For the English cats are the best in Europe" does not annoy anyone.


For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry

There is a cat monument in the grounds of Shrugborough Park in Staffordshire [url=englishbuildings.blogspot.com › 2013/07 › shugborough-staffordshire_11]englishbuildings.blogspot.com › 2013/07 › shugborough-staffordshire_11[/url]  One of the legends is that it may have been to Admiral Anson's cat from his maritime adventures.  Thinking of piracy (I was on the piracy thread recently) there seems to have been something if not totally piratic but a bit dodgy about Admiral Anson's antics.

Temperance wrote:

Oh LiR, I am sorry. Here is a lovely poem by Christopher Smart: "For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry". ...
For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry

 
Christopher Smart wrote one of his more enduring works (although it was never completed), 'Jubilate Agno', while he was in St. Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics.  This work includes these lines:

For God has given us a language of monosyllables to prevent our clipping.
For a toad enjoys a finer prospect than another creature to compensate his lack.
Tho’ toad I am the object of man’s hate.
Yet better am I than a reprobate, who has the worst of prospects.
For there are stones, whose constituent particles are little toads.
For the spiritual musick is as follows.
For there is the thunder-stop, which is the voice of God direct.
For the rest of the stops are by their rhimes.
For the trumpet rhimes are sound bound, soar more and the like.
For the Shawm rhimes are lawn fawn moon boon and the like.
For the harp rhimes are sing ring string and the like.
For the cymbal rhimes are bell well toll soul and the like.
For the flute rhimes are tooth youth suit mute and the like.
For the dulcimer rhimes are grace place beat heat and the like.
For the Clarinet rhimes are clean seen and the like.
For the Bassoon rhimes are pass, class and the like. God be gracious to Baumgarden.
For the dulcimer are rather van fan and the like and grace place &c are of the bassoon.
For beat heat, weep peep &c are of the pipe.
For every word has its marrow in the English tongue for order and for delight.

... which are very similar in phrasing and with each line starting " For ...", to the concluding lines of his poem about Jeoffry, his cat: 

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 this is 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. ... etc

Smart was known, with his "disturbed mental state," for his loud, feverish and constant praying, which is probably why he ended up in the asylum. I'm always wary about trying to diagnose an historical person's ailments, but the litany of "for"s with their incantatory quality in both 'For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry' and in 'Jubilate Agno' does seem to reflect a manic, hysterical mental state; or maybe autism? Smart was eventually released from the asylum but a negative reputation continued to pursue him as he was known for incurring more debt than he could repay, and this ultimately led to his confinement in debtors' prison until his death in 1771.

Yes, he suffered from what was diagnosed at the time as "religious mania" - poor Christopher.  But he was not a bad man, and I love his description of Jeoffry's antics. Samuel Johnson (another lover of moggies) was his good friend, and the good Doctor never abandoned Smart - even when he (Smart) was at his nuttiest.

PS I've spelled Jeoffry's name incorrectly - I can edit my own post, but not the bit you have reproduced, MM. Please will you delete the rogue "e" for me? Ta.

Done.

His lines in 'Jubilate Agno', with the repetative chanting quality and the alliterative and onomatopeic references to musical instruments:

For the trumpet rhimes are sound bound, soar more and the like.
For the Shawm rhimes are lawn fawn moon boon and the like.
For the harp rhimes are sing ring string and the like.
For the cymbal rhimes are bell well toll soul and the like.
For the flute rhimes are tooth youth suit mute and the like.
For the dulcimer rhimes are grace place beat heat and the like.
For the Clarinet rhimes are clean seen and the like.
For the Bassoon rhimes are pass, class and the like. God be gracious to Baumgarden.
For the dulcimer are rather van fan and the like and grace place &c are of the bassoon.
For beat heat, weep peep &c are of the pipe.
For every word has its marrow in the English tongue for order and for delight.

... reminds me of the prose poetry of Dylan Thomas in 'Under Milk Wood':

To begin at the beginning:

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched,
courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea.
The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine to-night in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows' weeds. And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now.

Hush, the babies are sleeping, the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher,
postman and publican, the undertaker and the fancy woman, drunkard, dressmaker, preacher, policeman, the webfoot cocklewomen and the tidy wives. Young girls lie bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaux, bridesmaided by glowworms down the aisles of the organplaying wood. The boys are dreaming wicked or of the bucking ranches of the night and the jollyrodgered sea. And the anthracite statues of the horses sleep in the fields, and the cows in the byres, and the dogs in the wetnosed yards; and the cats nap in the slant corners or lope sly, streaking and needling, on the one cloud of the roofs.

Gosh, yes - I have never considered that, but you are definitely right.

Thank you for deleting one rogue "e" in Jeoffry's name, but you have missed two others - one of mine and one of yours! Sorry to nitpick - it was my carelessness in the first place that has caused the problem, but we must spell this moggy's name right!!!

Poor Christopher Smart.  Having seen some of the crazy things I have on YouTube (but I'm not going down that rabbit hole again) suffice it to say that there are a still a number of people with religious mania and some of them have YouTube channels.  There were conmen and conwomen of course who jumped on the bandwagon with the "Pizzagate" fake news and collected money from well-meaning dupes to stop the satanic elites eating babies (I kid you not).  Getting back to something more grounded, alas mental illness is no respecter of persons; mention of Mr Smart started the niggling of a memory and I looked on Wikipedia about Guy de Maupassant the short story writer and while I'm pretty sure he didn't suffer from a religious mania he tried to commit suicide in January 1892 whereafter he was committed to the Esprit Blanche private asylum where he died in July 1893.

excuses

From The Life of  Samuel Johnson:




"Madness frequently discovers itself merely by unnecessary deviation from the usual modes of the world. My poor friend Smart showed the disturbance of his mind, by falling upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other unusual place. Now although, rationally speaking, it is greater madness not to pray at all, than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are so many who do not pray, that their understanding is not called in question.”



Concerning this unfortunate poet, Christopher Smart, who was confined in a mad-house, he had, at another time, the following conversation with Dr. Burney. — BURNEY. “How does poor Smart do, Sir; is he likely to recover?" JOHNSON. “It seems as if his mind had ceased to struggle with the disease; for he grows fat upon it.” BURNEY. “Perhaps, Sir, that may be from want of exercise.” JOHNSON. “No, Sir; he has partly as much exercise as he used to have, for he digs in the garden. Indeed, before his confinement, he used for exercise to walk to the alehouse; but he was carried back again. I did not think he ought to be shut up. His infirmities were not noxious to society. He insisted on people praying with him; and I’d as lief pray with Kit Smart as any one else. Another charge was, that he did not love clean linen; and I have no passion for it.

How I imagine Jeoffry...

I've always had a soft spot for Samuel Johnson because he loved tea and cats, but I have to admit I've gone off him a bit after reading he had "no great passion" for clean linen. Oh dear. But he was very kind to Hodge, his "very fine" cat (he regularly fed Hodge oysters), and as for this great man's tea habit:

“...a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has, for twenty years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and, with tea, welcomes the morning.”



EDIT: Here is the relevant moggy passage from Boswell:

Nor would it be just, under this head, to omit the fondness which he showed for animals which he had taken under his protection. I never shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat: for whom he himself used to go out and buy oysters, lest the servants having that trouble should take a dislike to the poor creature. I am, unluckily, one of those who have an antipathy to a cat, so that I am uneasy when in the room with one; and I own, I frequently suffered a good deal from the presence of this same Hodge. I recollect him one day scrambling up Dr. Johnson's breast, apparently with much satisfaction, while my friend smiling and half-whistling, rubbed down his back, and pulled him by the tail; and when I observed he was a fine cat, saying, "Why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;" and then as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, "but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed."

This reminds me of the ludicrous account which he gave Mr. Langton, of the despicable state of a young Gentleman of good family. "Sir, when I heard of him last, he was running about town shooting cats." And then in a sort of kindly reverie, he bethought himself of his own favourite cat, and said, "But Hodge shan't be shot; no, no, Hodge shall not be shot."

There seem to be a number of famous people over time who have liked cats.  Temperance has mentioned a couple such and I think MM mentioned Alexandre Dumas's cat once (though I'm not sure if it was Dumas Pere or Dumas Fils).  Isaac Newton may have liked cats even if the story of him making a cat door for a grown cat and another one for a kitten is apocryphal.

Hodge also has his own statue, located in Gough Square, London, in front of the house where he lived (with Dr J):



The statue depicts Hodge sitting on a copy of Dr Johnson's dictionary with two oysters at his feet. The inscription below his name says:

Well, hope our moggy musings have cheered you up a bit, LiR. 

Here's to all "fine cats", past and present, famous and humble.

Don't think we're wanted in the bar anymore, so we'll have to drink here. Voici un très large gin and tonic for you, and huge glass of Chateau de Something for MM.






PS Bosworth was the finest of cats, even if he was a hopeless druggie (catnip) and a total waste of space as a hunter.

You're more than welcome in the bar. What a panda-aggressive thing to think ... (and yes, I did see your deleted passive-ailuropessive comment regarding hymenopteric pets, which are indeed also banned from the bar premises under current intaxidermic substances legislation, so I have smuggled mine into this thread until I can find a more suitable home for it).

Ailuropoda melanoleuca of course have a special exemption under the Act for traditional reasons (along with brown ales of dubious ingredient), but we haven't seen many of these dropping in unfortunately of late. If you have a mating couple handy that you've been keeping under wraps then by all means bring them along for a dram whenever you're so inclined and drop them from whatever height you wish (take one of your horses or dudgeons along to be sure).

Humble apologies (honestly), sir. Your wasp story is on the previous page - didn't realise: I genuinely thought you were understandably fed up with inappropriate cat posts in the bar.

Back to the sanity of Larry Number 10 Cat and the madness of British politics. For pet owners - of wasps, lobsters, cats or whatever - Larry notes:






So if you want to take your pet away with you for Christmas you’ll need to book an appointment for six weeks ago. Good luck.
Quote Tweet



Cabinet Office

@cabinetofficeuk
· Oct 4
There are new rules for taking pets to the EU after Brexit. You'll need to visit your vet at least 4 months before you travel for advice.

I had an email from the company that did the insurance for my late cat.  They were going to cancel the 2019/20 year of the insurance (I adopted Pebbles on 13.10.2011 and lost her on 11.10.2019 so had her just under 8 years).  They also mentioned that they have a bereavement line for people who have lost their pets.  I had already talked with a friend (who is also a cat lover) about Pebbles as it happened but I did not realise you could get bereavement guidance for a pet.

Perhaps get a kitten, LiR - or think about a rescue cat? You may find another cat "adopts" you - moggies do wander into our lives. Bos wandered into mine and took over! Telling such a determined cat: "Look, you don't live here!" is of no use whatsoever. If they move in, they move in.

Mind you, the entire nation will mourn when Larry eventually passes on: he'll probably get a state funeral, he is so much loved. Whitehall have probably got a code name lined up for his demise - like for the royal family.

Well, I took some of the food Pebbles never got to eat to a stall the local branch of the Cats Protection League have in the market.  I had a bit of a chat with the lady looking after the stall and explained the circumstances and that the cat I had just lost was from Cats Protection originally.  She said they had a load looking for homes currently though she realised I might still be mourning my cat.

I was going to post this on the What is Art? thread but it’s probably better here. There was a program broadcast on BBC Radio 4 the other day called The artist – warts and all in which artist Humphrey Ocean, art critic Kate Grandjouan and biographer William Feaver discussed various artists and their paintings. One painting mentioned was The Graham Children painted by William Hogarth in 1742 which provoked the following exclamations:

Humphrey Ocean: "There’s a cat!"

William Feaver: "The best cat, tabby cat, the best cat in art."

Kate Grandjouan: "It’s a wonderful cat, yes."

Humphrey Ocean: "It’s so catty that cat."



Now it's certainly a great painting but they obviously haven’t visited the Res Historica Moggy Thread. I think they need to get in more.

That cat has one thing on its mind - what an excited, evil look it's giving the little bird. That feathered creature had better watch out. Looks to me the poor thing is squawking in terror, not singing.

Death was also on the artist's mind when he  was painting this apparently innocent and happy scene - the youngest child was (I think) already dead by the time the picture was finished.

Sorry to spoil it, but no use being sentimental about moggies - or art.

Temperance and Vizzer,

it is my cat, or better my mother's cat...
And I see in his/her (our cat, was an exact copy and it was a "her") eyes a wondering look as if surprized by something among that human "gedoe" (doing) (they translate with "hassie", but if I look on Google it is girl's name?), I would rather say "fuss"?

And as I explained on the "art" thread, it is the prerogative of the viewer in his exchange with the painting and the painter to interpret it as he "feel" it.
And nordmann seems to agree..

Kind regards, Paul.

Temperance wrote:

That cat has one thing on its mind - what an excited, evil look it's giving the little bird. That feathered creature had better watch out. Looks to me the poor thing is squawking in terror, not singing.

It looks like a Goldfinch with its red mask, white bib and yellow (gold) flashes on its wings. In the program Humphrey Ocean suggested that the cat had its eye on the finch but that it knew it would never get it. I suspect though that he's being too generous or optimistic and that you're more on the money Temp with regard to its true intentions. Mrs V says that although the expression of the cat and the child are superficially identical, the cat is positively salivating with its eyes.

I suppose you have seen on the news that Palmeston, the Foreign Office cat is back at work after six months off for stress 

Here is a clip about the kitten rescued on a fast Belgian road which I mentioned on another thread:-

Hope you like this Yuletime Larry shot, LiR. He seems to be weighing up whether or not the Downing St. Christmas tree bauble is edible:






PS Rumour has it Larry was arrested this morning.

PPS Re Palmerston's return - Larry has set us all an example and has been remarkably charitable to his old foe. Told him: "All I want for Christmas is you!" which I suppose could be taken several ways. Let's hope he doesn't attack poor old Palmerston again (who really was suffering from stress - too much media attention), but shows goodwill to all the other residents of Whitehall, even the Tory dog.

This worrying image was posted earlier today. The police are searching for suspects: they seem to have found one. It's all to do with something discovered in the First Lord of the Treasury's shoes this morning. Larry reckons the dog has framed him.

Especially for Temperance and LiR,

I read today on BBC world:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191024-why-do-we-think-cats-are-unfriendly

And as I thought before the essence is that the wild cat is a solitary animal.

From the link:

“Mostly, it’s just human misunderstanding of the species,” says Karen Hiestand, a vet and trustee of International Cat Care. “Dogs and humans are very similar and have lived together a long time. In a way it has been co-evolution. With cats, it is way more recent. They come from a solitary ancestor that isn’t a social species.”


And further:


"The African wildcat we domesticated our housecats from, Felis lybica, tends to lead a solitary life, mostly meeting when it is time to mate. “Cats are the only asocial animal that’s been domesticated. Every other animal we’ve domesticated has a social bond with other members of its species.”"


Kind regards, Paul.

On Monday afternoon I'm going to be inspected - well my house is - by Cats Protection to see if it passes muster for me to adopt a cat.  That's the first stage - I won't get the cat straightaway because they have to match the kitty with the home.  Wish me luck - or should I say please wish me luck.

Good luck, fingers crossed and all that, LiR: you've always come across as a genuine cat lover so I'm sure you'll pass muster. 

For me it's always been the cats themselves that have decided whether it has been worth their while staying here. The last two - strays - just turned up, demanded to be fed, joined the dinner queue and then generally expected to be looked after. Although I'm still not allowed to give them even a friendly stroke ... but that's cats, eh? 

The boy, Tostig, definitely thinks he's in charge, but yesterday morning I noted he's missing a big patch of fur from his bum, so he's clearly been fighting with something bigger and more powerful than himself. But despite his rather obvious bum damage he still reckons he's the boss and tries to act it - albeit his macho swagger is now with a slight limp - in front of the other two girl cats ... and he still meekly comes around every afternoon meeowling for his daily dose of 'Whiskers' and catty croquettes.

I've heard of a 10 year old she-cat that needs a home but the lady from Cats Protection (Cats' Protection) wasn't too keen on me travelling by bus to view the cat (the lady fostering the cat lives the other side of Cannock Chase).  She says she will try and get me a lift but to give her a couple of days to work on it.  I've said I'll give any person who gives me a lift money towards the petrol.  I'll keep folk apprised how things progress.

Well, someone from Cats Protection came to give me a lift today to the cat fosterer's and I now have a new old(ish) cat, Tilly, a tabby.  The previous owner seems to have lost interest in his/her cats because they had been living semi-ferally.  There was a ginger tom as well but he had suffered a broken jaw and needs a bit more attention before he can be rehomed.  Tilly seems to be a friendly cat though maybe she doesn't like to be picked up too much.  Her back fur had become very matted so she had to have it shaved nearly down to the skin.  The Cats Protection volunteer who originally phoned me about her said "She looks like a monk" though it's her back that's been shaven not her head.  She seems to like her food.

LiR, I had to look for "semi-feral"...we call it an "halve straatkat" (a semi-streetcat?)...

Good luck to you...and it is always a joy to have another living one with you when you are alone in house...at least in my humble opinion...

Kind regards from Paul.

NASA is naming all moonlets of Saturn’s rings after cats - including (so far) Sylvester, Garfield, Socks and Whiskers.

Larry has noted the above information this morning, posted at #NASA, and has added: "Cough, cough."

Who is/was this Socks nonentity?

I read that out to Doggy-Dog and he rather sniffily responded that dog's already have a planet, Pluto, several stars; Laelaps, Procyon, Maera, Lupus ... and indeed whole constellations; Canis Major, Canis Minor, Canis Venatici, Tau Canis Majoris, ... named after them.

Socks was Bill Clinton's cat who like Larry had his own website and blog:


By the way Temp did did you ever get another cat to replace Bosworth?

You can tell Doglet that that very impressive list has shut Larry up - at least until tomorrow morning.

No new moggy as yet - Bosworth can never really be "replaced"...

MM wrote:

Socks was Bill Clinton's cat who like Larry had his own website and blog...

Larry's response: "Oh, that Socks - some has-been from the colonies?"

A special thread has been started over at Twitter - #GetLarryAMoon

View it here (can't make the hashtag thing work):

https://twitter.com/Number10cat/status/1230859647810232321

I suspect Doggy-Dog would see this as a bit undignified - begging NASA for a moon? But then, as someone has noted:

"Larry deserves a galaxy for having to live with Boris!"

I managed to send a properly scanned medical summary for Tilly over to the pet insurance company.  Speaking to them today they said that I could take over the plan from Cats Protection but there were two caveats - Tilly has a heart murmur so she isn't covered for heart conditions but they did say that if she should ever develop such a condition that the vet considered had nothing to do with the heart murmur I could ask the vet to write an independent letter to that effect.  But on the summary it said that her dental record was "acceptable" but the insurance company have said that is "vague" and asked me to request more details but as of now they won't cover her for dental treatment.  I had that with Pebbles (my previous cat) but she'd had a couple of teeth out while she was still being fostered by Cats Protection.  Tilly hasn't had dental treatment while under CP.  I'm surprised the insurance company have taken that attitude though I don't see there's much I can do about it.  I've emailed the cat fosterer who had Tilly before me and also the local branch of Cats Protection to see if anything can be found out about her dental history.

LiR, that seems to be a textbook example of cat owner's "perikelen" (from Latin "periculum") (perils? troubles?)

Kind regards, Paul.

Palmerston, the Foreign Office diplomog, and Larry's mortal foe, has been spotted out and about again: he was kept indoors for ages after all the ferocious fighting with Number 10. This photo was taken this morning:

Those eyes! They should have called him Cromwell (Thomas). 

Did Holbein ever paint moggies - imagine what he could have done with Palmerston. Titian said a good portrait should "capture the intention of a man's soul". Does this dictum apply to cats too? What is the intention of this moggy's soul?






Definite likeness there.

Temperance wrote:

Did Holbein ever paint moggies ...

You mean like this,

I can't match MM's latest offering on this thread.  I wondered if anyone could suggest any reason why my cat (and her predecessor) prefer drinking puddle water to the water from the tap I put in a bowl for her.  I can understand that chlorinated water might not be very palatable to a cat but thinking of all the warnings we heard back in the 1980s about 'acid rain' -  plus the fact that some of the puddle water has been lying around - I wouldn't have thought puddle water was exactly the feline equivalent of spa water.

Cats are notorious for their odd drinking behavior. Mine will drink from the watering can, saucers under plant pots and even from the swimming pool - and that requires considerable acrobatics. They do however mostly drink from the water bowl that they share with the dog (it's unchlorinated spring water same as in the house) but crucially not if I put this bowl anywhere near to their feeding bowls and I have read that this is because in the wild cats don’t like to drink near their kill. So maybe try moving the water bowl well away from the food bowl, and I mean putting them in completely different places: mine are fed high up on a stone ledge at the side of the house but the water bowl is on the ground in the veg' garden round the back .

You are a veritable mine of information, MM.  Thanks for imparting this knowledge and I'll give it a try.

It is being quietly established that in the event of a total Cabinet collapse that Larry will take over the leadership role for which he has long prepared..... but  possible not been prepared.