Roby Sweet's Blog, page 77

Three Kittens Play While Their Mother Naps

Wordless Wednesday
A mother cat naps while her kittens play.Lithograph, ca. 1820–1860.Lithographer: Joseph Brodtmann (1787–1862).Artist:   Gottfried Mind (1768-1814). Via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
For more on the artist Gottfried Mind, see "Gottfried Mind: Cat Raphael."

A Living History Cat from 1913

Wordless Wednesday
A cat joins in on re-enacting domestic life in colonial times.Detail from the photo “Colonial Houses—Three Chums.”31 May 1913.Photographer: Wallace Nutting (1861–1941). Via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
No re-enactment of a hearth scene would be complete withouta cat napping near the fire.Detail from the photo “Colonial Houses—Fireside Fancier.31 May 1913.Photographer: Wallace Nutting (1861–1941).Via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Book Review of A Mew to a Kill

Miss Cuddlywumps reviews Leighann Dobbs’s latest tale from Mystic Notch

It is with great pleasure that we return to the intriguing town of Mystic Notch in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. And it seems we’re just in time for the fifth annual Mystic Notch Art Show, which is especially exciting because we love a good art show. But will this one be marred…by murder?
Happily, yes.
You see, there is one slot left for entries into that art show (and a chance at its $20,000 prize), and one Paisley Brown seems willing to do whatever it takes to make sure she gets it. Get it she does, in more ways than one. First, she gets that slot, allowing her to enter her truly terrible photography into the show. Second, she gets murdered in her photography studio, which just happens to be across the street from a certain bookshop owned by one Wilhelmina Chance.
Chance inherited the shop from her grandmother, and it is no boring old chain store, let me tell you. Last Chance Books happens to be haunted, by a couple of resident ghosts (poet Robert Frost and President Franklin Pierce—go figure) and by some who are just passing through—in this case Paisley Brown, who needs Chance to find out who killed her. Fortunately Chance is a former Boston crime journalist, so she has some idea of how to go about an investigation. And she finds a clue, though she can’t quite believe the conclusion it leads her to. More importantly, she is also fortunate enough to have the help of Pandora, the lovely gray cat who came along with the bookstore.
Now, Pandora is no ordinary cat. In fact, it seems that few of the cats of Mystic Notch are ordinary. Many of them are elite mystical cats deeply involved in the eternal struggle of good versus evil. Pandora has her own task in this story, and that is to find a mysterious young cat with a unique appearance—and then to rescue that cat from the evil white Persian (named Fluff) holding her under his influence.
Of course, Chance knows nothing about any of that, busy as she is sorting through potential suspects—and secrets. Secret affairs, secret loves, secret hobbies—A Mew to a Killis full of secrets, and it is a joy to ride along with Chance as she uncovers them. The most important secret, of course, is the one that led to Paisley’s murder. The question is, will Chance and Pandora figure it out before someone else gets hurt?
A Mew to a Kill is an enjoyable, witty read peopled with well-drawn characters in a setting we love visiting. The story is satisfyingly complex, and the society of mystical cats is one of the best cat tales we know of. We just can’t wait to find out what Fluff the evil Persian will do next.
We highly recommend A Mew to a Kill and the whole Mystic Notch series!

More from Leighann Dobbs

A Shaman's Jaguar from Ecuador

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday
Jaguar Mortar A mortar of green stone carved and polished to resemble a jaguar.From the Chorrera culture, eastern Ecuador, c. 1500–300 BC.Objects like this are thought to have been used by shamans to preparehallucinogenic snuffs that aided them in their interactions with the spirit realm.Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported LicenseThe Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Do Cats Care About Music? Modern and Historical Perspectives

Miss Cuddlywumps weighs the evidence on cats’ ability to appreciate music
© Stepangil7 | Dreamstime.com -FunnyCats In Music Headphones And Sunglasses PhotoHumans have wondered various things about cats ever since humans and cats first met. One thing humans have wondered about us is whether we appreciate music. The answer to that question is quite simple:
Maybe. Under certain circumstances. If you play the correct kind.
We (She of Little Talent and I) got to thinking about this question after two recent studies about cats and music came to our attention. The modern studies are interesting, but naturally we wondered what theories might have dominated the exciting realm of music-loving cats a century (or so) ago. We summarize our findings below.
First, the modernOne study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that cats ignore human music and tend to prefer “cat music.” The cat music was composed by David Teie to be played at a pitch and tempo intended to be appealing to cats. If you have no idea what that means, go to musicforcats.comand listen to the samples (the full-length tunes are also available for purchase if you want to try them out on your cat).
The researchers visited the homes of various cats and played two samples of classical music and two cat songs, noting the cats’ behavior. They encountered the usual challenges in any attempt to study cats (“Some of them needed to wake up and pay attention…”) but did find that the cats reacted more positively to the cat music.
A cat listening tomusic during surgery.Credit: Margaret Melling,Editor, Journal of FelineMedicine and Surgery.The second study involved female cats under anesthesia for spay surgery. The cats were fitted with headphones and listened to two minutes each of Barber’s Adagio for Strings (op. 11), Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn,” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” all while vets monitored their respiratory rate and pupil diameter to track how deeply anesthetized they were. The cats were most relaxed during the adagio and seemed more stressed during the AC/DC number. Reactions to Natalie Imbruglia were somewhere in between.
None of that is surprising, but the results suggest that perhaps playing relaxing music for cats during surgery could reduce the amount of anesthesia needed. It doesn’t tell us, though, what musical genre cats would prefer when awake.
Now, the historicalAs proof that humans have long been intrigued by cats’ musical preferences, we dug up a few pertinent articles from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
From The American Naturalist, February 1890The author of this report provided several stories of cats who responded to music. There was the cat who would respond to anyone who whistled a “plaintive air” by jumping into their lap to examine their mouth. The cat’s owner believed that the cat thought the whistler was in pain “and thus endeavors to express her sympathy.”
Other cats were known to respond to whistling, some with apparent pleasure, and some with uneasiness. We wonder if whistle-loving cats interpret the sounds as birds chirping or mice squealing. And perhaps the owners of whistle-averse cats just don’t whistle very well.
One English cat apparently loved piano music so much that she would sometimes “jump on to the keys and rub herself against the hands of the person playing.”
Another cat, this one from Washington, DC, enjoyed only soft, low piano music and would become agitated at livelier numbers, sometimes becoming so aggressive the player stopped out of fear of being scratched.
From The Roanoke Times, August 12, 1891Here the writer claimed that cats were well known to enjoy the piano. Cats exposed to piano playing

show every sign of feline enjoyment, purring, blinking their eyes and agitating their claws. Usually, too, they will venture on the piano keys themselves when they are alone, to find out what kind of harmony they can extract from the marvelous instrument.

 Sometimes, according to the writer, cats “are not born musicians, but can be educated.” Thus, a kitten who does not care for music can grow into a cat who loves it. One such cat who grew into a love of music preferred only the high notes and was somewhat afraid of bass notes.
(We must add that the same report claims that “cows cavort in gladsome ungainliness when they hear sweet strains.”) 
Mark Twain holdinga kitten, 1907.By Underwood &Underwood[Public domain],via Wikimedia Commons..
From the Evening Star (Washington, DC), March 15, 1908We’ll give the final word to Mark Twain, who said this about the musical sensibilities of three kittens he “rented” one summer:

Hardly any cats are affected by music; but these are—when I sing they go reverently away, showing how deeply they feel it.

 Or perhaps that reveals less about cats than about Mr. Twain’s singing.


SourcesEvening Star (Washington, D.C.), 15 March 1908. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1908-03-15/ed-1/seq-29/>
SAGE Publications. "Cats relax to the sound of music." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150330122530.htm
Stearns, Robert E. C. “Instances of the Effects of Musical Sounds on Animals (Continued).” The American Naturalist, vol. 24, no. 278 (Feb. 1890), pp. 123–30. Via JSTOR: The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.), 12 Aug. 1891. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86071868/1891-08-12/ed-1/seq-5/>
University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Move over Mozart: Study shows cats prefer their own beat." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150310160037.htm

Quiet Cat on a 1900 Theater Poster

Wordless Wednesday Cat on poster for On the Quiet,a comedic play starring William Collier (1866–1944), by American playwright Augustus Thomas (1857–1934).Poster by Strobridge & Co., c. 1900.

Artists and Their Cats: A Book Review

Artists and cats both like to go their own way, do their own thing, and just generally be whoever they are without any undue influence from some small-minded “authority,” thank you very much.
This makes artists and cats perfect for each other, as Alison Nastasi points out in her new book, Artists and Their Cats.
Nastasi’s volume includes forty-eight photographs of artists and cats, each accompanied by a short written profile of the artist (or artists) in question. Subjects range from Ai Weiwei to Andy Warhol (who once had, oh, about twenty-five cats), Georgia O’Keeffe (the photo of her with her Siamese cat is one of our favorites), Gustav Klimt, Herman Hesse, and Maya Lin (designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC). And of course there is Salvador Dali, pictured on the cover with his ocelot, Babou (who apparently loved to play with Dali’s socks—while the artist was not wearing them, we hope).
Ai Weiwei and cat.
The text is informative and often fascinating, though occasionally sparse and not as cat-centric as we might have wished. In a few cases, we’re not sure whether the particular artist actually loved cats or just happened to be photographed with a cat once.
Georgia O'Keeffe and cat.But for this book, the text is an accompaniment to the real stars, which are of course the photographs. Some of them are sublime—I am thinking here of the O’Keeffe and Herbert Tobias photos, she with that lovely Siamese and he with a magnificent black cat draped over his head. We love the photo of Henri Matisse working in bed with a couple of cats for company. Claude Cahun and cat staring directly into the viewer’s eyes. Georges Malkine, photographed by Man Ray, holding a cat whose head is slightly blurred in movement.
We have gone through Artists and Their Cats twenty or so times by now, and each time we find something that stops us and draws us in for another, closer look. If you love cats, artists, or photographs of cats and people together, you will love this book.Highly recommended!

Cats Get Into the Darndest Places: Medieval Cat in a Snail Shell

Wordless Wednesday Cat in a snail shell. Detail of a page from “The Maastricht Hours.”Netherlands, early 14th century.Public Domain, via the British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

Review: A Short Tale of Feline Leadership Gone Wrong

Miss Cuddlywumps reviews “An Incursion of Mice” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Kristine Kathryn Rusch does not write the cozy sort of stories I usually review in this space, but she does write some compelling, entertaining prose that sometimes includes cats. “An Incursion of Mice” is one of those tales, and it’s worth a read for its depiction of how a smallish cat society functions—or doesn’t, as the case may be.
The story is narrated by a former show cat who unfortunately landed on the street and then was lucky to be taken in to his current residence, where he lives with four other cats and two servants. He’s called by his “street name,” Wall T, and he thinks he’s in charge of the household. In his case, being in charge consists of having the other cats patrol the house for problems. Oh, and then there’s his research.
Wall T, you see, is an expert on crime and detective work, which he studies from the basement couch, or sometimes the recliner. He’s watched enough crime shows on television to understand how these things play out: dead body, car chase, fight, explosion. Always an explosion. But, like many leaders who fancy themselves adequate, Wall T is not as in touch with reality as he should be. And so, when one mouse and then two are found in the house, our brave leader sees his power quickly unravel as the horrible truth comes to light:
Wall T has allowed a major crime, an incursion of mice, to happen under his watch.
Perhaps he is not as well suited for command as he thought.
This story takes only minutes to read, but there’s a lot packed into it, making it worth a second read that promises to be just as entertaining as the first. Rusch’s straightforward prose is a joy, and this tale is studded with little nuggets of humor stemming mostly from Wall T’s unique view of the world. We especially enjoyed the bits about the Paw of Doom and the crazy tortie (living with two male cats and one tortie, She of Little Talent has seen her share of raised “paws of doom” and behavior that’s just plain loony).
Highly recommended!



Explore more by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

The First Cats in Tonga: Did They Arrive with Captain Cook?

A map of Tonga, or the Friendly Islands. Dottedlines show the routes taken by Cook’s shipson his second voyage (1772–74).Published in 1777 by Thomas Cadell of London. By http://www.geographicus.com/mm5/cartographers/cook.txt[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Tonga is a South Pacific archipelago of over 170 islands lying some two thousand miles east of Australia. Cats first arrived there in the eighteenth century, and they certainly did not get there by themselves. As far as we can tell, the first cats to arrive in Tonga came with Captain James Cook on his third Pacific voyage in 1777.
Captain Cook (1728–79) was known for charting the coasts of Canada, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, as well as for his Pacific voyages, (1768–71, 1772–75, and 1776–77). Presumably he carried cats on his ships on all of these journeys to control vermin, but the cats that we actually know a little bit about were on his third Pacific voyage. From what little we know, they did not set paw on Tonga willingly.
Cook’s third Pacific voyageThat third voyage included two ships: the Resolution, commanded by Cook himself, and Discovery, a support vessel commanded by Lieutenant Charles Clerke. The main intention was to explore up the western coast of North America in search of the Northwest Passage, but Cook spent considerable time farther south (it was on this trip that he discovered Hawaii, where he was killed on his second stop there in 1779).  Catnapped!The vessels reached Tonga in 1777 and caused a big sensation among the native people, who paddled canoes out to where the ships were anchored and, well, took some things that particularly interested them. Over the course of the two and a half months they spent around Tonga, the Europeans lost (among other things) weapons, tools…and cats.
Why the people of Tonga were so taken with the cats I can’t say for sure, but some of the cats were certainly taken by those people. A crewmember of one of the ships wrote that on May 18, "at Noon the Indians returned two Catts [sic] they had stolen from us." In June, a second crewmember reported that an additional six cats had been stolen, and they "could be but ill Spared from Ships so overrun with rats as ours" (Captain Cook Society).
Rats!The cats were indispensable because, as we have just learned, rats were a big problem. At one point, rats on the Discovery chewed the quarter-deck to get at the yams that were meant to be a stable, easily transported food for the crew. Clerke is said to have “mourned over [the] stolen cats, [as] his rats rioted unmolested” (Beaglehole, p. 541).
The mysterious fate of the stolen catsWhat became of the cats that were taken and never returned we do not know. Missionaries who arrived on the islands in 1797, some twenty years after Cook had been there, thought they were the first to bring cats to Tonga (Ferdon, p. 282). Perhaps those missionaries were simply unaware of an existing cat population, or perhaps those first cats failed to thrive or reproduce.
Or perhaps the natives decided they didn’t like cats so much after all.
SourcesThe Captain Cook Society: http://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/225-years-ago-april-june-1777
Beaglehole, J. C. The Life of Captain James Cook. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974.
Ferdon, Edwin N. Early Tonga: As the Explorers Saw It 1616–1810. University of Arizona Press, 1987.