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| Bernie |
When I learned last spring about the Yale University library’s collection
of books about cats, the name “Carl Van Vechten” kept popping up. It was Van Vechten who created and named that collection
for a friend of his who also loved cats, Anna Marble Pollock.
And it was he who wrote The
Tiger in the House (c. 1920), an
exhaustive and sometimes exhausting survey of cats in our world, past and (what
was for him) present -- 1936. In that year Van Vechten wrote an intro to the
third edition of his book, which I’ve finally finished with. (I can’t honestly say “finished reading” because there are frequent quotes
in French I’m not up to; same with gigantic dense paragraphs. But I soldiered on
through the whole interlibrary loan copy, and the book is now on its way home.)
In 13 chapters, the author discusses prejudices against cats through
the ages; feline traits; cat haters; and “the cat” in such fields as the
occult, the law, the theatre, folklore, music, art, fiction and poetry. Need I mention that Van Vechten was a major
ailurophile, and his book is an extended hymn to cats, with no patience for
criticism or negative superstition about them?
Among VV’s quotable quotes:
· * “A book
without animals is seldom a living book.”
· * “Naming
cats is beyond the power of the literary brain.”
· * “Poets
are more closely in touch with the spirit of grimalkin*, the soul of a
pussy-cat, than either prose writers or painters.”
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| McSnip pic |
Toward the book’s end comes this observation: “. . . like all well-bred
individualists. . . , the cat seldom interferes with other people’s rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of
the fool things that complicate life. Cats
never write operas and they never attend them. They never sign papers, or pay taxes, or vote
for president. . . .”
Nearly a century ago, Van Vetchen depended on the power of the printed
word in his own book and his creation of a library of related books to defend
and extol cats. By now, though, cats outnumber
dogs as American pets; there are cat shows, movies, books, magazines,
specialized veterinarians and the all-pervasive internet -- all focusing on “tigers
in the house.”
Talk about dramatic changes.
Describing how pets
are cared for in the US, the newspaper story linked here will probably astonish
you, as it did me. The scope of what’s
going on, ostensibly “for” pets (and not for their owners), may even scare you.
Maybe it should. One example: “Neuticles,” or surgically
implanted silicone testicles for sterilized animals. Before you laugh, consider
that a half-million animals reportedly have them.
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| Domino |
After that, the
possibilities are limited only by the imagination. Consider plastic surgery for
pets including tummy tucks and eyebrow lifts; French “pawdicures”;
psychopharmacology and “life coaches” for frazzled pets; and even gender
reassignment.
“You’ve come a
long way, kitty!” only begins to say it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/style/how-to-pamper-your-pet.html?emc=edit_th_180705&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=207602740705
* grimalkin = an archaic term for a cat.
* grimalkin = an archaic term for a cat.
‘Two if by sea’
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| PETA pic |
#
for naming of cats:
ReplyDeletesuch as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Corecopat
Such as Bombaluria, or else Jellkylorum
“Neuticles,” really? This to me is "beyond the pale." However, it is nice to see that people are treating their pets like family.
ReplyDeleteI would like to read "The Tiger in the House."