Art Attack wanted to take a moment to congratulate Andy Senor for landing the much-coveted position of Purina Cat Chow's Cat Correspondent." Yes, you read that correctly, he is a cat correspondent. The cat food company put out a nationwide search to find the most charismatic, cat-loving person in the nation and Senor was leader of the clowder. What does a Cat Correspondent do? Oh, you know, blog about cats, go to cat events, interview other cat owners and test out new kitty litter.
Not to state the obvious, but people really like cats. I have no issues with people who are cat lovers, despite being a fish person myself. For some reason, cat owners tend to be pegged as "crazy" compared to their dog-obsessed counterparts. So Art Attack searched around for some of the kookiest cat cases we could find.
Ancient Egyptians
The ancient Egyptians loved cats. As lore goes, the Goddess Bast, who resembled something of a lion/lady, was often associated with the feline figure and her love of all things cat. Apparently, people saw cats as a representative of fertility, probably because there were cats having babies all over the place. Cats were often mummified and put in tombs. Their owners wanted their deceased pets to be comfortable, so they would leave them milk and mummified rats.
Sir Winston Churchill
Churchill was a wartime hero, a leader and a cat lover. He loved big 'ol marmalade cats and his favorite was one he called Jock. Apparently Jock slept in Churchill's bed, they dined together and the feline attended important Cabinet meetings. When Churchill died he decreed that marmalade cats always live in his residence in Chartwell, which was given to the National Trust. They are currently up to Jock IV.
Lilian Jackson Braun
Maybe you've never heard of the recently deceased Braun, but she happened to write 29 books, many of them best-sellers, all titled with "The Cat Who..." Her first book "The Cat Who Could Read Backwards" was published in 1966 and translated into 16 languages. If there were a cat/mystery genre, it would be credited to Braun. The US Government
Did you know there is a top-secret unit in the US military of cats? The Covert Anti-Terrorism Stealth program (CATS... get it?) has been using kitties to gather intelligence for years because of their deep intellect and ability to pounce around. The CATS program goes all the way back to WWII when they stormed the beach with their human counterparts...Oh wait... this might be a joke.
This Guy
The guy from Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson)
Do you remember Jethro Tull; the psychedelic 60s flute/rock formation? Go to their official website, there is an entire section of blog postings by lead flautist, Ian Anderson, on caring for cats.
Marie Antoinette
She loved her some cats. Apparently she let them roam the palace, getting on the tables during high-court affairs. She even let them eat cake. According to legend, Antoinette was supposed to escape aboard a ship headed to the US with her six Angora cats. Marie lost her head, the cats wound up in Maine.
