The Philosopher's Cat

Agnes Repplier, gentle essayist, was born on April 1, 1855 and lived productives decades until December 15, 1950, These are just a few of the books she wrote: Philadelphia: The Place and the People (1898) In Our Convent Days (1905) The Cat (1912) Germany and Democracy (1914; with J. William White) The Promise of the Bell: Christmas in Philadelphia (1924) To Think of Tea! (1932) In Pursuit of Laughter (1936) T he Fireside Sphinx , (1901) sketches a history of the cat although she was not the first cat anthologist.

March 31, 1920 to September 24, 2014 are the dates for Deborah Mitford Cavendish, a Duchess of Devonshire. She was the last one of the Mitford sisters, that frilly edge of 20th century history. She was listed as an author on a number of books, including, The Garden of Chatsworth. In this book the Duchess quoted an architect on the kinds of wildflowers growing at Chatsworth, and here is an edited version of this list: .... dog violet ox-eye daisy mouse-eared hawk weed cat's ear bird's foot trefoil harebell .... Somebody else said (didn't they?) that lists can be poetry. This list sounds like a poetic menagerie.

Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853. I finally found a cat in his work, there is one in the painting  Daubigny's Garden . This is proof to me of his sentiments, (not that one could doubt his kindness to cats, knowing his open heart) since this is the garden of a painter whom he admired very much.

  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism had a brother named Charles and it is Charles who died on March 29, 1788. He is famous for his hymns. In an excerpt of a letter Charles wrote to his wife, we see his concern for the family cat. The subject is moving the family from Bristol to London, in 1771. (I cannot resist adding a little context): "May 16th. I want country air to perfect my recovery... We rejoice in hope of seeing you all next week. "Mrs. Ashlin thinks the person now employed in airing the beds, &c., would be a very proper servant. She is cleanly, sober, diligent, a hearer of the word, though not in society. We shall keep her, to keep up the fires, [and] to keep the windows open,... When you come, you will do as you like. "Give our love to dearest Mrs. Vigor, and her sisters, and her blessed, disconsolate friend. I nothing doubt our meeting again, unless I escape first. "Morse will take care of the harpsichord; but who of the cat? If you cannot leave h...

  March 28, 1941 is birth date of Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. This author of books such as the recent, The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats , is prolific. I did not read this book; it seems dubious to suggest cats have even ONE emotional life. But my ears perk up when I hear his name, because I did read a book he wrote: Freud: The Assault on Truth, (1984) and liked it very much. Masson is a Sanskit scholar, and why he is writing books now like: Dogs Never Lie About Love, strikes me as a clue to missing pieces of some untold story .

  Dick King-Smith is more popular in England than America, though some may have heard of one of his books:  Babe . He was born on March 27, 1922 and went on to write lots of children's books, all with cute animals. For our purposes these stories involve majorly cats: Three Terrible Trins Martin's Mice Find the White Horse Cats are just one subject in King-Smith's menagerie of books.

  Richard Dawkins, the science popularizer and outspoken atheist, was born on March 26, 1941. His recent documentary, entitled "Enemies of Reason," included some filming of a visit he made to a psychic. Here is a description I excerpted from a blurb about the show: "[The documentary]...opens with a visit to a new-age festival, where Dawkins visits a psychic medium. It's hilarious, the guy's just groping blindly for anything and he finally says he sees someone dead whose name starts with an E sound. Dawkins says his grandmother's name started with E. Psychic medium: She had a lot of cats. Dawkins: She never had a cat. She hated cats." This anecdote can be savored on several levels.