Famous Cat Lovers & Cat Haters

FAMOUS CAT LOVERS

Raymond Chandler - talked to his black Persian, Taki, as though she was human and called her his secretary because she sat on his manuscripts as he tried to revise them

Sir Winston Churchill - (1874 - 1965) Churchill's cat, Jock, shared his master's bed and table. Churchill often sent servants to find Jock and refused to start eating until his cat was present at the table

Albert Schweitzer - (1875 - 1965) Sometimes left-handed Schweitzer wrote prescriptions with his right hand, so as not to disturb his cat, Sizi, who liked to fall asleep on his left arm

Mohammed - Mohammed (570 - 632), the founder of the Muslim faith, thought dogs unclean, but liked cats. He once cut off the sleeve of his robe to avoid waking a sleeping cat as he rose to pray

Petrarch - (1304 - 1374) When the poet died, his cat was put to death and mummified

Cardinal Richelieu - (1585 - 1642) This Prince of the Church reserved one of his rooms for cats, where overseers fed them chicken pates twice a day. When he died, the overseers and cats were provided for

Ernest Hemingway shared his Key West home with more than thirty cats

Florence Nightingale owned more than sixty cats in her lifetime and often complained of mysterious "stains" on her paperwork

Cardinal Richelieu, who had dozens of cats, built a cattery at Versailles in which to house them

Mark Twain kept eleven cats at his farm in Connecticut. His daughter, Susy once remarked, "The difference between Papa and Mamma is, that Mamma loves morals and Papa loves cats."

St. Agatha (d. 251) is still known as Santo Gato (Saint Cat) in parts of the Pyrénées mountain range of southwestern France. She is said to appear in the form of a cat on her day, February5, to punish women who have angered her.

St. Francis of Assisi (1182 - 1226), according to an Italian legend, was saved from a plague of mice by a cat which sprang miraculously out of his sleeve.

St. Gregory the Great (540 - 604) possessed no worldly goods except a cat, which ie liked tostroke and hold in his arms whilehe was meditating.

St. Ives (1035 - 1115), the patron saint of lawyers, appears in portraits with a cat by his side, and is sometimes depicted as a cat.

St. Jerome (340 - 420) was famous for owning a cat and is frequently depicted in paintings accompanied by a domestic cat instead of his more traditional lion mascot.

St. Molig of Ireland, according to legend, became disturbed when his pet cat caught a sparrow which had eaten a fly; he restored both bird and insect to life.

Some other famous cat lovers include: Jeremy Bentham, Raymond Chancler, Colette, Victor Hugo, Samuel Johnson, Pope Leo XII, Montaigne, Edgar Allan Poe, Theodore Roosevelt, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, Horace Walpole, Abraham Lincoln, and H.G. Wells.

FAMOUS CAT HATERS

Johannes Brahms - (1833 - 1897) One of Brahm's favourite forms of relaxatin was to sit at an open window and attempt to kill neighbourhood cats with a bow and arrow

Napoleon Bonaparte - Napoleon was once found sweating with fear and lunging wildly with his sword at the tapestry-covered walls. The source of his fear was a small kitten

Noah Webster - (1758 - 1843) Webster described the cat as a "deceitful animal and when enraged, extremely spiteful"

Dwight D. Eisenhower - (1890 - 1969) Eisenhower's loathing for cats was so great, he gave his staff orders to shoot any seen on the grounds of his home

Henry III - (1551 - 1589) Henry was like a lion when persecuting the Protestant minority in France, but the presence of a cat turned him into a chicken. He would faint if a cat came near him

Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon - (1707 - 1788) The French naturalist praised dogs, but claimed that cats possessed "an innate malice and perverse disposition which increases as they grow up." He added that they "easily assume the habits of society, but never acquire its manners."