Roby Sweet's Blog, page 76

Medieval Manuscript Cat Uses Weaponry Against Mice

Wordless Wednesday When tooth and claw just weren’t enough, medieval cats turned tohuman weaponry—at least as seen in this marginal painting in which a cat fires a bow and arrow at mice in a tower.The painting appears in a Book of Hours from southeast England(London).The date is c. 1320–1330.All images Public Domain, via theBritish Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.
Detail (from lower left of above image) ofthree mice in their tower, with arrowjust about to hit.
Detail (from lower right of above image) oftabby cat notching another arrow in his bow.

The Cat Who Beat the Rats…with His Wooden Leg

A short but tall tale told by Miss Cuddlywumps
John the cat before his unfortunateaccident. (It is surprisingly difficultto find a picture of a cat with awooden leg.)© Merkushev | Dreamstime.com  Cat At The Helm Of Ship, Vector Illustration PhotoWay, way back in the first half of the twentieth century, there was a ship called the USS Abarendathat sailed the Asian seas. This particular ship had a particular cat, John, who once had an unfortunate accident that left him missing one front leg. But not to worry. John the cat was surrounded by sailors whose natural inclination was to fit him with a wooden leg. (Yes, I know that cats can get along just fine on three legs, but this is a tall tale, so stick with me.)
Now, you might think that a wooden leg would be a hindrance to a ship’s cat in that it would make it harder for him to perform his main job of catching rodents. In this, you would be wrong. John the cat actually found his new leg to be quite a useful tool, as he could use it to beat rats over the head. This he did with glee, until one day he encountered one of the biggest, meanest rats ever seen on any ship on any of the seven seas. John cornered this rat and commenced to beat it with his leg. The giant rat was successfully subdued, but at great cost: John had broken his wooden leg.
But not to worry. The clever sailors soon fashioned him a better leg, a stronger leg—a leg made of iron. Only they failed to take into account the weight of an iron leg. Now John the cat had a stronger leg with which to beat the rats, but he was no longer nimble enough to catch them. What to do?
There is still no need to worry about John the cat, for he had his sailor friends, and they happily caught rats and presented them to him so he could beat them with his new and improved leg. This situation suited John just fine, for it eliminated all the stalking and chasing that had previously taken up so much of his day, giving him more time for sleep and meditation. With all those sailors catching rats, the vermin were soon completely exterminated, and the Abarenda gained the great distinction of being the only ratless ship in the US fleet.
John the cat, with all that free time on his paws, became a sun-puddle philosopher.
SourceThis story is retold, with some embellishments, after the tale “The Wooden-Legged Cat” from The Folktale Cat (ed. Frank de Caro, August House Publishers, 1993, p. 144). It was originally collected by journalist Lowell Thomas and published in 1945.

1880s Tiger Stamp for Playing Cards

Wordless Wednesday
Tiger on U.S. playing card stamp, c. 1881–1883. Private die playing card stamp of Russell, Morgan & Co.,creators of the “Tigers No. 101” brand of playing cards.For part of the nineteenth century, the U.S. governmenttaxed playing cards. Manufacturers could create theirown stamps, like this one featuring a fearsome tiger.Image scanned and processed by A. Sdobnikov(Personal collection)[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Feline Vessel from Ancient Peru

Wordless Wednesday
Peruvian Earthenware Feline Vessel. From the Vicús culture, Pacific coast.500 BC–AD 500 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported LicenseVia The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

“Buy a Whisker” Book Review: Elvis the Cat and Murder in Maine

Miss Cuddlywumps reviews the latest Second Chance Cat mystery By Sofie Ryan

We are delighted to have spent a few evenings (via our e-reader) up in North Harbor, Maine. It’s a place where the pace of life is slow, the buildings are mostly historic, and the businesses are mostly “quirky.” Too bad about that murder thing though.
Here’s what happens:
A new harborfront development project is in the works, and it is a big deal for North Harbor. A lot of people have a lot riding on it, but one woman, a bakery owner named Lily, is holding everything up by refusing to sell her property. Her obstinacy is a bit of a mystery, and Lily has been getting some harassment over her stick-in-the-mudness: her front windows have been egged, someone switched her salt with her sugar…you get the idea.
None of that is very neighborly, but things take a dark turn when Lily is discovered dead at the bottom of her bakery stairs: Accident, or murder?
Well, of course it’s murder, because nobody writes mysteries about deaths that turn out to be accidents. (Do they?) This is where Sarah Grayson and her cat, Elvis, get involved. Sarah owns one of those “quirky businesses,” a secondhand and antique store called Second Chance where Elvis likes to hang out, charming the customers. Elvis also enjoys watching Jeopardy!, though Sarah isn’t sure why. More importantly, Elvis can tell when people are lying.
Also involved is a group of ladies of a certain age—Rose, Liz, and Charlotte—who’ve taken up investigation and opened an agency called Charlotte’s Angels, Discreet Investigations. You can call them “the Angels” for short. Their biggest case so far? They found someone’s missing teeth.
The Angels—and Sarah and Elvis—have quite the cast of suspects to sort through. There’s the owner of the development company, who stands to lose a lot if that harborfront project doesn’t go forward. There’s Daniel Swift, whose son died years before under suspicious circumstances and who is thought to hold a grudge against Lily because he thinks she knew more about that death than she let on. There’s grainy security-camera footage showing a suspicious character slipping out the bakery’s back door: the killer, the prankster, or none of the above?
Buy a Whisker is a delight to read, with a cast of characters we loved getting to know and all sorts of quirky details that make North Harbor its own place (oh, how we’d love to go browse through Second Chance). The story is nicely plotted and is told with a touch of humor (we especially enjoyed the part where Liz threatens Daniel Swift; you really shouldn’t mess with mature ladies). We wished Elvis had played a more central role in finally solving the case, but his lie-detecting abilities did come in handy, so that is a minor complaint. And then, just when we thought some threads were going to be left hanging at the end, there is a little twist that explains everything. A-ha!
Easily, our favorite part of Buy a Whisker was the discreet agency known as Charlotte’s Angels. More mature ladies should conduct investigations. As one of the Angels says, “Nobody notices an old woman. We’re about as close to invisible as it gets.” But criminals in North Harbor had better just watch out for these old ladies. And for Elvis the charming lie detector.Highly recommended!


Also by Sofie Ryan

A Caged Cat: Painting by Gottfried Mind

Wordless Wednesday
Chet en Cage.Watercolor by Gottfried Mind (1768-1814), c. 1800. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Three Medieval Cats and Their Mice

Wordless Wednesday Long before Tom and Jerry of cartoon fame, cats and mice began appearing together in art. Here are three examples from medieval manuscripts.

Miniatures of cat and mouse, and a mouse,in a Theological Miscellany by Peraldus. England, c. 1236–1275.Public Domain, via the  British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts . A cat with a mouse in the margin of the “Harley Hours”(a Book of Hours). England, c. 1275–1300.Public Domain, via the  British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts .
Detail of a cat holding a mouse on a pagefrom the Codex Justiniani.Central England, possibly Oxford, c. 1250.Public Domain, via the British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts .

Coming Soon in Belgium: A Parade of Cats

The giant cat Cieper, seen herein the 2012 Cat Parade.By Zeisterre [CC BY-SA 3.0],via Wikimedia Commons.
Mark your calendars, because something big is happening in the world of cats on Sunday, May 10, 2015. I am referring, of course, to the Cat Parade in Ypres, Belgium. This event has deep roots in cat history, and it is no ordinary parade. Yes, it features dignitaries, music, dancing, and floats, but most of the festivities are all about cats: cats in history, cats in language and legends, cats around the world. After the parade, some toy cats are thrown off a belfry tower, and the whole thing ends withA bit of recent historyCelebrations centering on cats were held in Ypres in 1938 and 1946 (the interruption in between was due to World War II). These both included toy cats being thrown from the belfry tower of the famous Cloth Hall. Then in 1955, the larger Cat Parade event got its start, complete with 1,500 costumed extras.
These days, the parade and other events are all in good fun, and no cats are harmed. But it was not always so.
The Middle AgesThe Ypres Kattenstoet has its deepest origins in the Middle Ages, when so-called “cat fairs” included the torturing and killing of cats. These sorts of fairs were held in many places, not just Ypres. For whatever reason (fear, superstition, a surplus of cats), lots of people got a kick out of killing cats back then.
But why throw cats off a tower? According to the Kattenstoet website, it may have been a simple matter of expediency. Ypres was known for its cloth and had a lot of it in storage, but wool and cloth attracted mice that destroyed it. Enter the cats, which were set loose in the Cloth Hall to control the mice--but no one had thought about controlling the cats. Those cats naturally had lots of kittens, and soon enough cats were the new overpopulated pest. The easiest way to control them seemed to be to carry them up to the tower and throw them to their deaths. (This seems like a weird solution to me, but people do weird things all the time, so who knows? It might be true.)
Sometimes the cats survived the fall, and some people (Tabor, p. 44) have speculated that the true reason for the cat-throwing ritual was to demonstrate cats’ supernatural abilities. We may never know the true reason for tossing live cats from a high place, but the practice ended after 1817. The very last live cat was thrown from the tower in that year, and it survived. Since then, any cat throwing has been done only with toy cats.
The giant cat Minneke Poes appears in the 2012 Cat Parade.By Zeisterre [CC BY-SA 3.0],via WikimediaCommons.The 44th Cat ParadeThis year marks the 44th modern Cat Parade, and according to the program, visitors will be treated to quite an event. They will see how cats were worshipped in ancient Egypt and condemned in the Middle Ages; the acting out of Flemish sayings related to cats; and some world-famous cats, including Garfield. They will also see two giant cats: Cieper in his snazzy top hat and Minneke Poes (Pussycat) in her lovely gown.
Oh, to be a cat in a window as this parade passes by!
For more information, visit the Kattentstoet website: http://www.kattenstoet.be
SourcesKattenstoet website.
Tabor, Roger. Cats: The Rise of the Cat. London: BBC Books, 1991.

Medieval Dog Bites Cat

Wordless Wednesday
Dog Bites Cat Illumination shows a dog biting a cat whois busy dealing with two mice.Detail from book 16 of Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job.Germany, 12th century.Public Domain, via theBritish Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

Doodling for Cat People: A Gem from Gemma Correll

Miss Cuddlywumps reviews the book—and old SoLT’s drawing

Just looking at Gemma Correll’s cat drawings can bring a smile to your face. They’re just so cute, and funny, and deceptively simple. Well, if you think it would be fun to learn to draw cute, funny cats, Doodling for Cat People is just the book for you.
The bookFirst, the book is filled with Correll’s cat drawings, just to show you what is possible: cats in clothes, cats doing tricks (or not), cats in boxes, cats in hats, anthropomorphic cats… You get the idea—and ideas are what it’s all about. Just think of the things you can create with just a few simple lines on a stray sheet of paper!
Only it’s hard to know how to start, and that’s where Doodling for Cat People can really help you out. For the creatively challenged, the book includes creative prompts and step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow. Don’t know which part of the cat to draw first? Correll tells you. (Spoiler alert: start with the head and ears.) Don’t know which direction to draw your line in? Correll tells you. (Spoiler alert: it takes some practice.)
She of Little Talent tries to draw like Gemma CorrellAnd she mostly fails—let’s just say that right up front. (I don’t call her She of Little Talent for nothing, you know.)
Poor old SoLT dreams of drawing beautiful things, so naturally she was eager to try her hand at doodling cats. Because she is pathologically incapable of actually drawing in a book (this after receiving some harsh criticism over her earliest creative endeavors in her parents’ books), she used just any old sheet of paper that was lying around. “That’s what doodling really is,” she said.
So she put pen to paper, and…

Well, aside from her very first attempt, she didn’t do as badly as I might have expected. Actually, old SoLT is rather proud of her attempt at a fluffy Persian (lower left), but I will tell you for the record that she did not mean for that kitty to come out looking deranged. I’m proud of her for trying.
The upshotWe highly recommend Doodling for Cat People. It’s great fun, even if your doodle attempts come out looking a little deranged. Who knows…maybe your off-kilter drawing can be the inspiration for a comic about an off-kilter cat!



Also by Gemma Correll