The reason people were afraid of cats during the Middle Ages
Felines, despite having a good amount of domestic responsibilities, have not always been well regarded
As I read this, I’m sitting in my easy chair with Merlin next to me, on his back, getting his tummy rubbed, purring madly, and discussing the article with me every few seconds. “Mreeoww”
The familiars of Middle Ages witches have become the pets of modern middle-age crazy cat ladies.
Coincidence? I think not.
Or they could hav been afraid of them because they carry fleas which spread disease
They thought cats were carriers of the Black Death. So they killed the cats causing the real carrier, their fleas, to jump to the rats, becoming an even bigger problem.
I’ve read an old wives’ tale that they sucked the breath out of infants.
Our Nallie wishes to continue with her rule in her empire, aka our house, no matter the scholarly study.
Cats have an independence/dependence sort of a thing. Generally, if treated well, the will settle in quite comfortably with a family.
Because they had eight too many lives?
Mouse Lives Matter!
I, for one, am tired of all the old prejudices against cats.
They are not bad luck.
They don’t suck the breath out of babies.
They don’t hang around with witches.
These are all old, disproven prejudices.
They do give you warts, though.
Cats and Dogs
By H. P. Lovecraft
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/cd.aspx
The cat is for the aristocrat—whether by birth or inclinations or both—who admires his fellow-aristocrats (even if Little Belknap isn’t especially fond of Felis). He is for the man who appreciates beauty as the one living force in a blind and purposeless universe, and who worships that beauty in all its forms without regard for the sentimental and ethical illusions of the moment. For the man who knows the hollowness of feeling and the emptiness of human objects and aspirations, and who therefore clings solely to what is real—as beauty is real because it pretends to no significance beyond the emotion which it excites and is.
For the man who feels sufficient in the cosmos, and asks no false perspective of exaltation; who is moved by no mawkish scruples of conventional prejudice, but loves repose and strength and freedom and luxury and superiority and sufficiency and contemplation; who as a strong fearless soul wishes something to respect instead of something to lick his face and accept his alternate blows and strokings; who seeks a proud and beautiful equal in the peerage of individualism rather than a cowed and cringing satellite in the hierarchy of fear, subservience, and devotion.
The cat is not for the brisk, selfimportant little worker with a “mission”, but for the enlightened dreaming poet who knows that the world contains nothing really worth doing. The dilettante—the connoisseur—the decadent, if you will, though in a healthier age than this there were things for such men to do, so that they were the planners and leaders of those glorious pagan times. The cat is for him who does things not for empty duty but for power, pleasure, splendour, romance, and glamour—for the harpist who sings alone in the night of old battles, or the warrior who goes out to fight such battles for beauty, glory, fame, and the splendor of a kingly court athwart which no shadow of weakness or democracy falls. For him who will be lulled by no sops of prose and usefulness, but demands for his effort the ease and beauty and ascendancy and cultivation which alone make effort worth while. For the man who knows that play, not work, and leisure, not bustle, are the great things of life; and that the round of striving merely in order to strive some more is a bitter irony of which the civilized soul accepts as little as it can.
“” The reason people were afraid of cats during the Middle Ages
Felines, despite having a good amount of domestic responsibilities, have not always been well regarded””
And -—— the cats didn’t give a darn.
many poeple are afraid of cats
but with good reason
cats are the Superior Life Force on Rock Three
“kept the insufferable mice in check.”
Plus cats can read our minds.
bump
Is that how the Cathars got their name?
Nowadays, we call them hipsters.
PS Heretic Cats actually is the name of a band.
When learning English as a second language, it is imperative to know that the phrases “house cat” and “cat house” are not interchangeable.
I read an article the other day that said in the early years of the plague people thought cats were carriers and turned against cats. Later it was believed rats and mice were actual carriers, if so they truly cut their nose off to spite their face by getting rid of cats in large numbers.
Some researchers now do not believe the plague was carried by rats, mice, or cats. They seem to think it spread to rapidly and was more likely person to person.
Cats choose their ‘owners’.
Who really never ‘own’ them...............