Sunday, July 8, 2018

Hard to find, & read -- yet a fascinating book

 "We share the planet with animals. If there’s an animal in need that comes across my radar, I wouldn’t think twice, because there’s no better feeling [than] helping an animal." -Jannet Talbott, of Alberta, Canada, who performed major dental surgery on a local squirrel with her cuticle scissors --The Dodo 

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.”

                           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.

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.

‘Two if by sea’
 
             PETA pic
2nd alert: The sea kittens are coming!  



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2 comments:

  1. for naming of cats:
    such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Corecopat
    Such as Bombaluria, or else Jellkylorum

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  2. “Neuticles,” really? This to me is "beyond the pale." However, it is nice to see that people are treating their pets like family.
    I would like to read "The Tiger in the House."

    ReplyDelete