As my cats are using my Macbook for a warm sleeping place, I am lucky to have an iPad to work on while they are dreaming. The ipad stays cool and, therefore, the cats leave it alone. You can write in peace – get an extra keyboard for comfortable writing! – and you receive the inspirational support by your cat!
has begun.
We wish all our readers well-being and prosperity in all their aspects.
We have written a new story on New Year’s Day. It is not a New Year story, but one which suits the “Rauhnächte”, i.e. the nights of the 12 days of Christmas, when the doors between this world and the next are open.
Its title is Der Geisterhund/The Ghost Dog
Almost 230 pages of well-researched history of cats from their domestication in ancient times up to the modern. As the title suggests, curious facts, customs, legends, beliefs and suspicions are collected in the 9 (!) chapters of this book in a convenient hand-bag format. Much of this is common ground from other historical treatments of cats: their reverence as goddesses in ancient Egypt, their persecution along with the witches, famous tales like Puss in Boots, the association with cats sought and cultivated by many writers and artists. But always and again in-between there are lesser known bits – from the faithful little cat sharing imprisonment in the Tower of London with the Earl of Southampton in the reign of Elizabeth I., or the strange tradition in In Ypres (Belgium) of throwing cats from the city tower as a witches’ trial. The chapter on modern times also includes cats in the media, from Hollywood cat actors to cartoon figures such as Garfield and his predecessors.
The book differs from many cat histories by showing how closely light and dark aspects may be intertwined in the treatment of cats by humans. For example, in ancient Egypt, cats were not only worshiped but killed by the thousands in a very tender age to “produce” sacred cat mummies.
The very readable, entertaining and interesting text is augmented by beautiful illustrations from colour plates to sketches and wood-cuts in black and white. There is a small bibliography and lists of famous cat lovers and haters (a number of which are said to have swooned on seeing a cat e.g. Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon and others).
Especially the solidly bound hard-cover edition is very suitable as a present for any cat-lover.
Edgar Allan Poe, master writer of the uncanny and of dark fantasies, naturally also wrote about cats. One of his most famous pieces is titled “The Black Cat”. In “Poe’s Uncanny Housecat” Ed Sams explores the reality of Poe’s live with his cats and his stories.
We only just now found this piece and we proceed to buy the book. We will be back and give a review of it later.
It is well-known that many authors have a special relationship with their cats. Every once in a while, we will mention one of them.
Today we remind you of:
A very interesting text came to our knowledge today. Here a competent literary cat shares his experience with his human writer. The text is from 2002 but very illuminating about cross-species communication and literary collaboration. It is Cats and Writers, One Cat’s Opinion by Aristophenes Mr. Robert’s Cat Sloan, translated by Robert A. Sloan at http://www.fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue10/themecatsandwriters.htm. In addition to relating important facts about cats helping writers to get their fictional cats right, there is much insight into the relations of writers and cats and why they work so well. Hmph, we could not agree more!
A website with references to some less well-known literary texts featuring cat, we found here and great pictures included, too! Definitely worth a visit.
So, that’s it for today. Have a great Sunday and some extra treats for Valentine,
Yours
Djinnie and Perri (Fairy)
To celebrate the start of the New Year we are publishing today a new story, appropriately titled At the Turn of the Year. Enjoy!
Sorry to all our readers!
We have been offline for so long. At first Djinnie has been very ill in the summer, close to death, in fact. Thank goodness she survived and it is a well as almost new. Then Steffi and her mum took their turn at being ill. In the meantime, much work had been piled up. But now we are definitely back.
So: hallo and season’s greetings to everyone!
Where we live, it is snowing heavily since morning. Our patio garden is almost completely covered. So, we definitely prefer to stay indoors today. After watching snowflakes for quite a while, we are settling into nap-mode in our favourite easy chairs. Steffi is writing away at the computer. Time, too, she puts more things here on the website.
Have a grand Christmas and we’ll be back soon.
Djinnie and Perri
Here we are again on this sunny 1st of May, back from a lengthy outing in our patio garden. Now before our next nap, we will fulfill our promise and post our “Golden Rules”.
If you like, ask your cat (s) to add their “rules” as a comment.
We will not bore you with the obvious: to feed your cat regularly and well (observe closely what they like to eat, and, yes, they change their tastes all the time); to clean their toilet at least once a day, to play with them, to keep them healthy and so on. If you are unsure about these basics, the Internet is full good advice, say ,if you are a would-be or a new cat-guardian (never say or even think cat-owner, see our first rule).
So, here are OUR rules:
(The download link is here).
First off, we’d like to introduce ourselves: we are Djinnie and Perri (or Fairy), and we are co-authoring this blog.
