One of the reasons we love dogs is their famous teachability. Today even Dick Whittington would need a dog. Not long ago, a man whose name had become an international synonym for manliness and courage-Teddy Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill-could cherish his cat or cats and none dared sneer, but these heroes have not been replaced. Their association with witches lingers in the bottom of the mind, and closer to the top lies the work of Walt Disney, in whose world cats are sly, sneaky, dishonest, and unmanly, all things unbecoming a Scout. Dogs are loyal, brave, honest, and trustworthy. (The Clintons had a cat but it was something of a joke and they got rid of it when they moved, taking only the dog with them.)ĭogs are us. In the community newspapers regular advice columns appear discussing what they tactfully call “pets”: Does your pet chase cars? Does your pet bite the mailman or bark all night? The local animal shelter runs a full-page ad in every issue with handsome posed photographs and loving descriptions of every dog they have available for adoption and, in the bottom corner, an unchanging box that mentions they also have plenty of what they call “kitties.” We elect a new president and when he and his family move into the White House the first thing the country notices is that they have no dog: how can he be president, or even American, without one? The entire country joins his family’s search for the perfect presidential dog. In the bookstores books about dogs regularly pay the rent, while the only books about cats are for children, and British. In the supermarket food and toys and comforts for dogs have a double aisle all their own, while cats share half an aisle with mops and brooms. By last count, American households harbored 82 million cats and only 72 million dogs, ten million more cats than dogs, yet they exist in a shadow world, unmentioned, the social equivalent of, say, pet turtles. Introduction In America, cats, pet cats, have sunk so far below the national consciousness that they’ve almost vanished. SECRETS OF THE CAT Its Lore, Legend, and Lives (Formerly titled The Name of the Cat) Barbara Holland Illustrations by Emily SchillingĬONTENTS Cover Title Page Introduction 1 The Conversion of Boston Blackie 2 Smart Like Us 3 People with Cats 4 Cats with People 5 Cats with Cats 6 The Cat’s Early Years 7 Cats and the Church 8 A Choice of Cats 9 Show Business 10 Medical Matters 11 Sex and Kittens 12 Practical CatsĪlso by Barbara Holland About the Author Copyright About the Publisher
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