Would cats ever get away with being destructive critters that they are, if they weren’t so damn cute? This woodblock print captures the careless curiosity that makes cat owners everywhere scream with frustration as their precious plants get wrecked.
Tag: pet
Charlie the Cat at Six
I can’t believe how fast time flies. It feels like only yesterday Charlie was a tiny enchanting kitten, and now he’s already knocking at the doors of middle age.
Epitaph for Margarita the Dog
I’m a cat person first and most, but I was compelled to do a post about dogs for once, after coming across this moving ancient poem. This is the epitaph for Margarita (Latin for Pearl), inscribed on a marble plaque in honour of a beloved lap dog, deceased in second or third century Rome.
Gaul sired me, the shell of the rich sea gave me my name: the honour of that name is becoming to my beauty. Taught to roam unexplored woodlands with courage and to chase hirsute game in the hills, unaccustomed ever to be restrained by heavy harnesses or to endure savage beatings with my snow-white body: for I used to lie in my master’s and my mistress’s lap and mastered the art of resting wearily on a spread-out blanket. Even though I used to be able to express more than I was entitled to with my inarticulate mouth – that of a dog! – no one feared my barking. But I have already met my fate, stricken down during ill-omened whelping – me, whom earth now covers under this little marble plaque.
La Poeté by Marc Chagall
I rarely remember my dreams these days, but a giant blue cat floating over a village sounds like a dream I wouldn’t mind having.
The Cat by Bart Van Der Leck
Bart Van Der Leck was a founding member of De Stijl, a Dutch art movement based on a strict geometry of horizontals and verticals. This black-and-white cat with piercing eyes looks both intense and friendly.
Ode to Spot
Data’s poem to his feline companion, a ginger tabby called Spot, is one of the most hilarious moments on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Though his USS Enterprise colleagues are less than impressed with the recital, it is surely a masterpiece of android poetry. Eat your heart out, ChatGPT!
The White Cat by Pierre Bonnard
One of the highlights of the Pierre Bonnard exhibition I visited on the weekend was this humorous painting of a white cat, which still manages to look haughty despite its comically elongated legs. Whether you find the distortion hilarious or hideous, the image certainly grabs your attention.
By Day She Made Herself Into a Cat by Arthur Rackham
Don’t pet this kitty! There’s something special about black cats, and this illustration for The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, about a witch who turns into a black cat and glowers at the world, is one of my favourites. I love the robust and expressive pen and ink technique, and the way the cat simply radiates power and anger.
Cats Sleep Anywhere – A Poem
Cats sleep, anywhere,
Any table, any chair
Top of piano, window-ledge,
In the middle, on the edge,
Open drawer, empty shoe,
Anybody’s lap will do,
Fitted in a cardboard box,
In the cupboard, with your frocks –
Anywhere! They don’t care!
Cats sleep anywhere.
– Eleanor Farjeon
The Angora Cat by Jean Honoré Fragonard and Marguerite Gérard
The white angora cat will have none of that brushing business thanks very much! I like the small details in this painting: the dog in the bottom left corner, the servant woman in the shadow behind the door, and the eerie reflections of the other people in the room.
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