Tag: cats

Pen to Paper: Writers and Cats

Posted on by bryon

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Greg Bryant’s creative writing class at Highland Community College. I don’t recall why, but I mentioned that writers and cats seem to be a common pairing.

Monica Wood, in her The Pocket Muse: Ideas & Inspirations for Writing, has this list of writers who loved cats: T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, Christina Rossetti, John Keats, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Christopher Smart, Marianne Moore, Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, Doris Lessing, Rita Mae Brown, Carolyn Chute, and Nuala O’Faolain.

Then she asks: “Isn’t it time you got a cat?”

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OT: Adopt-a-Cat Month 2010

Posted on by bryon

Reverting briefly to Catsignal’s original province, June is American Humane’s Adopt-A-Cat Month.  Yes, this almost couldn’t be posted any later, but any time is a good time to adopt a cat.

The best writers have loved cats. Monica Wood in The Pocket Muse: Ideas and Inspirations for Writing gives us this list of literary cat lovers: T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, Christina Rossetti, John Keats, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Christopher Smart, Marianne Moore, Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, Doris Lessing, Rita Mae Brown, Carolyn Chute, and Nuala O’Faolain. So if you want to write seriously you should consider adopting a cat.

Wanting to be a good writer isn’t enough, of course. You must determine if a cat is right for you. Go through the checklist and make sure you’re on board.

Bringing a pet into your home must not be a frivolous matter; this is a life you would be trifling with. You must adopt a pet with the firm conviction that it is a lifetime commitment. Determine you will be the best pet lover ever for the whole length of the pet’s life, or don’t do it.

“How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.”
— Robert A. Heinlein

Fiction: Fallen Gods

Posted on by bryon

“Omari, you promised that this year you would explain the human Christmas to me.”

“So I did, Naji. Come, then; let’s take a little walk.”

Omari stretched, curving his back high, and ended up on all four paws. He led the other cat out of the warm shed and down the alley.

“Tell me, young Naji, about Egypt.”

“In Egypt we were worshipped as gods,” Naji replied brightly, “because we were the ones who killed both the rodents that infested the granaries and the fearsome cobras. This knowledge is part of every cat and is every cat’s birthright.”

“Very good,” the older cat said. “But later?”

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