Cats (Spoilers all books incl RWC)

[Sini]

"The Egyptians once worshiped cats as gods. They have never forgotten this."

I think this is L.M.Montgomery - from an Emily book?

[maulkin]

According to Wikiquote , it was Pratchett, although the exact wording of the quote is "In ancient times, cats were worshiped as gods. They have never forgotten this."

The Wikiquote Cats page also has a lot of other excellent cat quotes. This one reminded me particularly of Hobb's dragons:

The kitten has a luxurious, Bohemian, unpuritanical nature. It eats six meals a day, plays furiously with a toy mouse and a piece of rope, and suddenly falls into a deep sleep whenever the fit takes it. It never feels the necessity to do anything to justify its existence; it does not want to be a Good Citizen; it has never heard of Service. It knows that it is beautiful and delightful, and it considers that a sufficient contribution to the general good. And in return for its beauty and charm it expects fish, meat, and vegetables, a comfortable bed, a chair by the grate fire, and endless petting.

* Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks

[Nuytsia]

Aha so definitely somewhere in Pratchett. I'm getting The Unadulterated Cat from the library! If it's not in there, it would take me quite a while to re-read through every other Pratchett book we have. I know I read it SOMEwhere, but it could have just been on the internet.

Hey I thought that quote above was about ME at first! Hehehe until I got to the beautiful and delightful bit. (ok and to be honest I don't play with a toy mouse or rope UNLESS I'm playing with the cats....). Well, the six meals and sleeping is definitely right!
Does sound like the dragons though. Also made me think of Cat in Red Dwarf!

There are some great quotes on that page. I always think it's cool how many amazing historical (and current day) people like cats (so much they write nice things about them).

[Farseer]

I am going to remention this in a new thread on myths I plan to post sometime soon BUT I found it VERY interesting to discover that pecksies (in Words Like Coins) ALSO "detested cats" and another important point following that is that "some peckies had webbed feet." Hmmm...does this sound a little 'Otherly' to you...?

There are some other pecskie facts and opinions that I think are important but I will leave these for the new thread.

[joost]

Neil Gaiman has written a nice cat-story as part of the Sandman series (it can be found in the bundle 'Dream country').

[maulkin]

One of my favourites (meep!).

[Nuytsia]

I got The Unadulterated Cat from the library!
No sign of that quote yet, but there are some very familiar cat scenarios in there ....

Hmmm the pecksies link sounds interesting .....

[Nuytsia]

Maybe the Wit originated as a way for cats to communicate their wishes to humans in the same way as

Spoiler

it is indicated that maybe the Skill originated as a way for dragons to communicate with humans?

(I think that was the smallest spoiler in the history of the world)

[maulkin]

Sounds like a good theory to me!

I wonder whether cats can communicate directly with dragons?

[Nuytsia]

Not sure, the only encounter that springs to mind was Dragon Keeper

Spoiler

I think it's when they first go upriver on the Tarman and encounter the dragons and one of the dragons (Mercor?) approaches the Tarman and gives it a headbutt and Grigsby jumps up on the railing and growls at him. Had to chuckle at the cat challenging the dragon. It reminded me of one time one of our cats ran out the doorway at night after a big kangaroo - and the kangaroo ran away!