Contemplating Cats

“Cats were put into the world to disprove the dogma that all things were created to serve man.”

~ Paul Gray

“Your cat will never threaten your popularity by barking at three in the morning. He won't attack the mailman or eat the drapes, although he may climb the drapes to see how the room looks from the ceiling.”

~ Helen Powers

“I have noticed that what cats most appreciate in a human being is not the ability to produce food, which they take for granted - but his or her entertainment value.”

~ Geoffrey Household

In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.

“When your cat rubs the side of its face along your leg, it's affectionately marking you with its scent, identifying you as its private property, saying, in effect, 'You belong to me'.”

~ Susan McDonough

“The problem with cats is that they get the same exact look whether they see a moth or an ax-murderer.”

~ Paula Poundstone

“Cats always know whether people like or dislike them. They do not always care enough to do anything about it.”

~ Winifred Carriere

“Cat people are different, to the extent that they generally are not conformists. How could they be, with a cat running their lives?”

~ Louis Camuti

"Cats never strike a pose that isn't photogenic."

~ Lillian Jackson Braun

"Cats, no less liquid than their shadows, offer no angles to the wind. They slip, diminished, neat, through loopholes less than themselves."

~ A. S. J. Tessimond

"The cat does not offer services.
The cat offers itself.
Of course he wants care and shelter.
You don't buy love for nothing.
Like all pure creatures, cats are practical."

~ William S. Burroughs

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.”

~ Garrison Keillor

"The only mystery about the cat is why it ever decided to become a domestic animal."

~ Sir Compton MacKenzie

"No tame animal has lost less of its native dignity or maintained more if its ancient reserve. The domestic cat might rebel tomorrow."

~ William Conway

"Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance."

~ Saki

"Ignorant people think it is the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so;
it is the sickening grammar that they use."

~Mark Twain

"Every contented cat is an "it"."

~ Helen Powers, on the virtue of neutering

"Cat: A pygmy lion who loves mice, hates dogs, and patronizes human beings."

~ Oliver Herford

"God made the cat in order that man might have the pleasure of caressing the lion."

~ Fernand Mery

"I saw the most beautiful cat today. It was sitting by the side of the road, its two front feet neatly and graciously together.
Then it gravely swished around its tail to completely encircle itself.
It was so fit and beautifully neat, that gesture, and so self-satisfied, so complacent."

~ Ann Morrow Lindbergher

Posted in memorium to my friend Cheryl's Mother's cat, who leapt upward to the great low-hanging branch in the sky yesterday, and sits amongst all the great cat beings, with the ultimate cat template of the cat spirit, whom I humbly call upon to usher this cherished cat safely to its home amongst the everlasting spirit of all things and beings. She is greatly missed and will be remembered fondly always for her unconditional love and companionship with Cheryl and her Mother.