The Library

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Many historical and literary figures have been cat fanciers including Auguste Renoir, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Teddy Roosevelt. Author Ernest Hemmingway owned (or was owned by) 40 cats at one time, and Britain's Queen Victoria owned two Blue Persians. When Anne Frank and her family were in hiding from the Nazis, their cat Mouschi went with them.

Mark Twain so admired cats that he wrote, "If animals could speak the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow, but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much."

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Another quote by Mark Twain reads, "Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat."

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animated figure (c) Kitty Roach

Some religious leaders also were not immune to the charms of the cat. The most famous was Mohammed who reportedly cut off a sleeve of his robe in order to avoid disturbing a cat who was sleeping on it. Both Popes Gregory the Great and Gregory III renounced all their worldly possessions, but each refused to give up his cat. Pope Leo XIII befriended a kitten born in the Vatican, named him Micetto, and made him his life's companion.

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"In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats."- English proverb.

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"I think one reason we admire cats, those of us who do, is their proficiency in one-ups-manship. They always seem to come out on top, no matter what they are doing-or pretend to do."

-Barbara Webster

"You have now learned to see
That cats are much like you and me
And other people when we find
Possessed of various types of mind."
- T.S. Elliot

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