Just a week or two ago, a small and elected to play with her Adelaide human’s gas stove. When authorities notified Emmy the cat’s human companion of the likelihood she had burnt a good part of his home to ash, he responded as all rational cat companions would. That is, he cuddled her, scratched behind her ears and described the creature that had just caused $40,000 worth of damage to onlookers in a besotted voice as, “a very cheeky cat”.
If, like me, you are a cat-person, you find this reaction perfectly sound. If you are not a cat-person, you may count this as further evidence that this species is evil, inclined to bend the weaker human will with and .
Let’s set aside that cats have been found to control human will by precisely these means—look, they’re a superior life-form and I don’t see what’s wrong with living with a little of their dominance. I want to speak with you about a weighty cultural matter related to this story. That is: the negative depiction of cats in media.
I want to speak with you about a weighty cultural matter related to this story. That is: the negative depiction of cats in media.
Oh, a cat is always doing something “wrong”, according to the narrow moral codes of our increasingly anti-cat era. There was, it must be said, a brief and glorious period in which cats—including stars , , and, of course, the community of grammatically divisive —were celebrated. Then, as has so long been the case, faith in the feline was challenged by that other . Cats and their people were again consigned to the margins, dreaming of a long-ago .
We have regressed to the time of Cats and Dogs, a very bigoted movie in which those beasts who emit “woof” from their snouts are seen as saviours and cats as the end of all hope. And this, a children’s film! Hollywood was hardly excused with its pseudo-positive depiction of Mr Jinx, or “Jinxy Cat”, in the production Meet the Parents. Yes, this glamorous Colourpoint Persian—played by several talented actors, none of whom received adequate credit—is a pivotal star of the film. But, of course his “true” character is revealed when he urinates on the cremains of a family member.
In the small but passionate effort to undo these and many other brutal portrayals of pussy cats we who are their people know them to be, I will here offer a brief but by no means comprehensive account of history’s best cats. Or, hiss-tory, should you prefer.
Just this year, , a tuxedo tabby, defended the home he generously permits his human to share, from invasion. Says human Cynthia of her normally peaceable friend, “I have never seen him attack anyone like that before”. According to reports, paramedics had to be called to the scene to address the wounds inflicted on the human burglar. (Incidentally. The term “cat burglar” is but further cultural proof of the disdain so many have for cats!) Those who are not cat people would do well to remember that Blinky the cat is capable of restraint, and bares his claws only when absolutely necessary.
Consider , a marmalade chunk of love who, despite considerable heft at 9.5 kilograms, bound about the house to raise the family alarm where his diabetic human has suffered an attack during sleep. Consider , the ship’s cat who protected rations from rat attack. And, yes, I realise these are all male cats. But, of course, the scourge of sexism still exists within cat-people, and so accounts of lady cat heroism are scant.
is, I’m afraid, another chap cat. But, no hiss-tory is complete without him. It is not clear that Muezza did anything particularly heroic. It is often said, however that the Prophet, peace be upon him, was fond of this particular furball. The story goes that during the call to prayer, Muezza was sleeping on Muhammad’s garment. Rather than push puss off his robes, he took a pair of scissors and allowed the cat to remain asleep as he answered the Adhan.
And then, there is my own little blotched brown tabby, Eleven, now gone, but still wonderfully alive at a time I needed him most. Without his steady paw guiding me through the end of a fifteen-year relationship, I would have given up on the idea of love, which I saw in his green eyes every day for more than a decade.
And you dissuade me, or any other cat-person, that this is not real love. It can be the kind of close companionship that gets you through the lowest times, and allows you to dismiss occasional arson as the harmless act of a “very cheeky cat”.
