|
MESSYBEAST CAT RESOURCE ARCHIVE |
INTRODUCTION
Much has been written about cats over the years and it is interesting to consider past views in the light of modern developments. For instance, in "Origin of Species" (1859), Charles Darwin wrote "...cats from their nocturnal habits, cannot be so easily matched [bred] and although so much valued by women and children, we rarely see a distinct breed long kept up." Another writer of the same period, Charles Baker, produced "Animals, Their Nature and Uses", a nature book for schools which stated "The cat must be considered as a faithless friend, brought to oppose a still more insidious enemy. The domestic cat is the only animal of the tribe to which it belongs, whose services can more than recompense the trouble of its education and whose strength is not sufficient to make its anger formidable."
Some one hundred years later the cat fancy had developed in ways that neither author could have envisaged. Distinct breeds were being maintained and many cats were valued for their appearance or companionship rather than their hunting abilities. These articles show how cats were considered, and cared for, and how attitudes changed, during the last 100 years.
The changes in information dispensed to cat owners reflects our growing knowledge of cat care and feline medicine and also demonstrates how prevailing opinions have changed over the years e.g. from allowing queens to breed then destroying kittens, to spaying, to the short-lived mention of abortion and then its omission. I find it interesting to trace the way books and leaflets reflect the views of the time. Some of the older leaflets may seem callous by modern standards of cat care, but at the time of publication the suggestions may have been quite novel or even radical; for instance to prevent drowning of kittens at a time when spaying was the exception rather than the rule. Over the years such suggestions have shaped the way we care for cats, by introducing new concepts gradually and helping them to become more widely accepted, and finally the norm.
I wonder what Darwin, who felt that cats could not be selectively bred, would make of the myriad of modern breeds, what Baker would think of his "faithless friend" being kept as a pampered pet or what Mery, who wrote so scathingly of "adapted breeds", or Soderberg who could not even hazard a guess as to the colour possibilities in the Siamese breed alone, would have to say about Munchkins? Come to that, how long will it be before cat lovers read 1990s publications and consider the contents out-of-date and reflecting ill-advised opinions on cat care?
You are visitor number