In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this

Terry Pratchett

It was the discovery by my wife of a Quail early one morning this week that prompts this Reflection. The Quail was both alive and well. No doubt a homecoming present from one of our cats after the recent trip my wife and I made to Scotland.

I like cats. I know that’s a statement that will not find universal approval. Especially with gardeners who do not seem to appreciate visits by cats that undertake their ‘toilette’ amongst the fragrant flower beds.

Dogs can make excellent companions, but it is something about their slavish devotion that makes me think them ‘pathetic’. I am also wary of large dogs. A cat can give you a painful nip or scratch, but they can’t kill you if they get into a strop. A cat will, of course, eat you should you die alone with them.

It’s a cat’s diffidence I most enjoy. A cat lives life on their terms. As Hemingway wrote, “A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not”. I wonder what the world would be like if we all showed complete emotional honesty.

You might say that makes cats selfish, but I might also write that of people. Relationships appear to work when either the desires of each partner coincide or when one of the partners masquerades or suppresses their own wants. In the latter appearances deceive and in time the relationship fails.

Of course, while cats can’t kill a person (although some cats try by wrapping themselves around ones’ legs), there is a whole host of things they can kill. But not always. Sometimes it's a case of presenting the ‘trophy’, kicking and squealing, for your approval. Sarah is now a black belt at retrieving mice, sparrows, and other assorted wildlife from various rooms in our house. Returning the creatures to the ‘safety’ of their own environment. When it comes to mice, we can’t tell which the cats recapture and return some days later for Sarah to save all over again. Mice, unlike birds, don’t seem so adept at moving away from the scene of their original capture.

So far, the Quail is the most unusual bird rescued. My wife returned it to the wild in a field some distance away from our garden. It can’t be much fun as a flightless bird when it comes to being preyed upon.

Organisations still call upon this ‘bloodier’ side of cat behaviour for practical purposes. Even Number 10 Downing St has it's resident ‘mouser’. It seems more popular than any politician that’s lived there. Its twitter account has far more followers than mine and thankfully, it tweets less often and more authoritatively than many politicians.

Many writers enjoy the company of cats. Indeed, Samuel Johnson was so close to his cat he erected a statue in London to ‘Hodge’. Cats often appear in literature in some guise or another. Some examples are, Tobermory, the talking cat, Carroll’s superior Cheshire cat, the reincarnated Liszt cat and of course the criminal mastermind cat, Macavity. Eliot authored a complete book of poetry on cats that years later made it onto the West End stage (and a film over which we will draw a veil). Dogs too appear much in literature, but I can’t think of a stage production in which they feature.

Cats also like to ‘spread the love’ by having a second home in which they can relax for a change of scenery. Or different food and pampering. The second home of one of our cats is a neighbour. They tell us that on warm sunny days said cat happily saunters in their back door, passes the time of day with them, checks out any changes they may have made and then saunters out the front door.

Of course, cats are very aware of all the attention paid to them by people. As Terry Pratchett wrote, “In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”

Now, I must see what the cat has brought in ……