The Cat Who Came for Christmas (Cleveland Amory) Chapters 1-3

‘To anyone who has ever been owned by a cat . . .’ is the first phrase of this story: a telling phrase that can be completed in thousands of ways, many of which are explored in this book.  This humorous look at one man’s views on cat psychology keeps bringing to my mind Mark Twain’s lighter works – a real treat for this reader!  Cleveland Amory is sharing observations that are more or less common among cat lovers; not trying for originality so much as universality; but taking the ideas perhaps a little deeper than most of us, and phrasing them so eloquently as to tempt us to stop and admire the prose.  He’s one of those writers that students trying to learn the craft of writing might want to study in detail.  Bravo!

‘For an animal person, an animal-less home is no home at all.’  Looking back on the periods of my own life when I didn’t have a pet in the home for an extended time, this resonates with me.  Personally, I would take it a step further and apply it specifically to cats.  I have often had to “make do” with dogs, and I love them dearly, but the hole in my life created by not having a companion cat is like a missing tooth; something you could get used to, but never quite comfortable with.

The personification of cats – this one Who Came for Christmas in particular – is elevated to a fine art here.  ‘. . . he spoke.  “Aeiou,” he said.  “Ow, yourself,” I replied; “Merry Christmas.”  I reminded him that he was supposed to say, “Meow.”  “Aeiou,” he repeated.  Obviously, he was not very good at consonants, but he was terrific at vowels.’  He even borrows from the great Aldous Huxley: ‘“My young friend,” I said, “if you want to be a psychological novelist and write about human beings, the best thing you can do is to keep a pair of cats.”’  ‘“The tail in cats,” Mr. Huxley declared, “is the principal organ of emotional expression.”  The author also counselled his student not only to watch his cats “living from day to day” but also to do more than this – “to mark, learn and inwardly digest the lessons about human nature which they teach.”’  I’ve often wondered how differently humans would have evolved psychologically if we had never kept pets.  I have to think we learned valuable lessons from dogs and horses especially and perhaps, more subtly, from cats.  Would we even have survived as a species without the positive personality traits learned from these wonderful beings?  Somehow, I doubt it.

‘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 mind.’ . . . ‘They sense that it is absolutely essential for them to seize every opportunity for education and correction.  Otherwise, as befitting our slothful natures, we will slip back immediately into our most incorrigible old habits.  Their job in this regard something, I’m told, like a wife’s.’   (Another beautiful “Mark Twain” moment!)  This leads to a comparison of “dog people” and “cat people” – in particular the idea that women are usually more drawn to cats and men to dogs.  He had long held this as a general theory, ‘But, all of about twenty-four hours after I had had my cat, I was suddenly not so sure.’  (That many famous male authors favored cats is well documented.)

Chapter Three ends with the most thorough cat-personification yet, in which the author essentially gives us both sides of the conversation between he and the cat about whether he can “train” the cat to “Come” to him on command.  Right.  I’m reminded of a Facebook meme in which a German Shepherd and a medium-sized black cat are looking out a glass-pane French door.  The dog is thinking, “The Master’s home!! Yay!!” and the cat is thinking, “You’re late, slave!”

Next Week:  Chapters 4-6

Week 3:  Chapters 7-8
Week 4:  Chapters 9-10