All cat owners are aware of the superior air exhibited by their pets. They seem to relish their independence but generously allow us to be their closest companions. Dogs learn tricks but cats are practically untrainable and they have managed to convince us that it's not because they are less intelligent but because they really can't be bothered.
They manipulate us with their wiles and entrance us - when they feel like it - with their quirky behaviour and so wrap us around their little paws. Some of the most talented and clever people in the world have recognised the fact that cats are superior and sometimes supercilious beings. I'll let them tell you all about it in their own words.
Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
"When my cats aren't
happy, I'm not happy. Not because I care about their mood but
because I know they're just sitting there thinking up ways to get even."
because I know they're just sitting there thinking up ways to get even."
Comedian and actor Bill Dana (1924-2017)
"I had been told
that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not.
Mine had me trained in two days."
Mine had me trained in two days."
Actor Kandyse McClure b.1980
"I read that when cats are cuddling and kneading you, and you think it's cute,
they're really just checking your vitals for weak spots."
Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle b.1948
"I have lived with
several Zen masters - all of them cats."
Writer Cleveland Amory 1917-1998
"As anyone who has
ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows,
cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind."
cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind."
Poet Pam Brown b.1948
"Cats can work out
mathematically the exact place to sit that
will cause most inconvenience."
will cause most inconvenience."
Writer Neil Gaiman b.1960
"Anyone who believes
what a cat tells him deserves all he gets."
Writer Mark Twain 1835-1910
“Of all God's
creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash.
That one
is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve
the man, but
it would deteriorate the cat.”
Writer of horror and science fiction H. P. Lovecraft 1890-1937
"The cat is such a
perfect symbol of beauty and superiority that it seems scarcely possible
for
any true aesthete and civilised cynic to do other than worship it."
Writer and film-maker Megan Boyle b.1985
"My cat is always
looking at me like I am forgetting something
crucial and he depends on it."
crucial and he depends on it."
Blogger and writer Will Wiles b.1978
"Nothing snubs quite
like a cat. What evolutionary purpose did it serve,
this inherent disdain, this
artful blanking?"
