Jules Verne, French novelist, “I believe cats to be spirits come to Earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through”
The house cats were once considered deities in societies across the ancient world. As one humorist pointed out, they still want to be treated as such.
The domestic house cat, in many cases, unlike man’s best friend seems more to tolerate humans than actually wanting to be a loving companion. While they began living with humans around 10,000 years ago in the Middle East, finding easy food in their settlements, they never took on the various tasks that dogs now occupy besides killing rodents and sometimes letting you cuddle with them.
Science has shown that like canines, felines can recognize when their owners are calling out their name. However, many times they will just ignore it or even walk away from whomever is calling them. Thus making them far harder to train than obedient dogs.
As Mark Twain noted: “They don’t give a damn for discipline. And they can’t help it, they’re made so.” The cat-loving American writer, who is said to have had up to 19 cats any one time and rent kittens when on tour, said that this “ain’t really insubordination, when you come to look at it right and fair.”
“A cat ain’t ever anybody’s slave or serf or servant, and can’t be -- it ain’t in him to be. And so, he don’t have to obey anybody. He is the only creature in heaven or earth or anywhere that don’t have to obey somebody or other, including the angels,” Twain added.
“I believe cats to be spirits come to Earth”
This state of affairs may be more of mankind’s fault than we’d like to admit. “In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this,” noted English author Terry Pratchett. We did let them into our homes and then began treating them like deities and attributing them with divine powers.
This was the case from the beginning, and it replicated itself as they spread, carried by traders to keep rodents from eating the precious cargos being transported. In Egypt they decorated them with gold jewelry and made it a crime to kill them, even mummifying them. They were venerated for their fierceness and protection but at the same time their agility and grace.
So it makes perfect sense that French author Jules Verne said: “I believe cats to be spirits come to Earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.”
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