Never Mock A Cat: It Can Have Disastrous Consequences

Louis Wain (5 August 1860 – 4 July 1939) was an English artist known for his drawings, which consistently featured anthropomorphised large-eyed cats and kittens. In his hey day he was amazingly popular and earned lots of money. There were Louis Wain books, calendars, tablecloths, toys, chair covers and so on. Suddenly though he dropped out of public life and wasn't heard of again until after his death.

Following his passing friends started wonder if Wain had been accursed by the drawings he had made of cats. Stories circulated about how the ancient Egyptians revered cats as supernatural beings, It was suggested that the cats had the power to send Louis Wain to a living death.

One of his old friends said, "When Louis first drew a cat in ridicule it was the beginning if the end."

Wain first began drawing cats following the sad loss of his young bride. He was soon drawing dozens of cats every week - cats at tea parties, cats playing cricket, cats reading books. His cats became an amusing commentary on the human race.

Gradually though his output exceeded his inspiration, it was no longer sufficient to make his cats merely amusing. The creatures of his drawings became more and more ridiculous and comic.

It was then that the cats seemed to take their revenge.

A week before Wain was due to form a new oil company, which would have revolutionised the industry, the British government issued a decree forbidding the formation of such companies. Wain had sunk his fortune in the the preliminary expenses - and was ruined and penniless.

Soon after a shipload of model cats he had made in America was lost at sea. Huge sales had been assured for the cargo - it appeared as if the cats themselves had ordained that the money should never be made.

The next blow came when his sister, who ran Waine's home suddenly died.

With less and less demand for his work, Wain often went hungry, though he still created an appearance of affluence.

Out of the blue the tide turned in his favour - and once more, so his superstitious friends said, the cats had their revenge. A film company came to an agreement for film cartoons featuring his cats. Wain got on a bus to go to their offices to sign the contract - but there was a crash.

Wain was catapulted from the bus top into the street below. Two dray horses reared in sudden fright and stamped on him.

For more than a week Wain lay unconscious. When he came round, he moaned, "The cat! The cat!"

Soon after this he had to go to a mental hospital.

The cats had robbed him of his wealth, his health and his reason.

When he died, cats were in his last delirium. Then a warehouse containing the greater part of his original sketches was bombed.

It's said that the ancient Egyptians believed that to mock a cat meant death.

Footnote: Wain was said to be in the mental hospital with schizophrenia. According to Wikipedia this may have been precipitated by toxoplasma gondii, a parasite which is excreted by cats in their faeces. So the cats got to him one way or another!

Other Random Animal Posts:
Four Funny Animal Coincidence Photos
Kitten Coincidences And Reincarnation
Telepathic Communication With A Duck

The Retrieving Of Bonzo Got Us Into A Doo-Dah

Bonzo

My wife and I were talking about animals we have had in the family over the years: Pudd'n, Toby, Bonzo, Black Cat, Kayley, Herbina, Sylvester and so on - a mixture of cats, dogs and terrapins. We have photos of most of these except for Bonzo, who was our favourite cat from - gulp! - twenty odd years back.

So no Bonzo photos. But then coincidence, synchronicity or whatever swings into action! The following day Karin has decided to sort out the dreaded cupboard under the stairs. It's a bit like Dr Who's Tardis, except what goes in is often never seen again. It must be a gateway to another existence or something.

Anyway, with bottom in the air, Karin attacks the unknown and finds all sorts of goodies like carrier bags with car brand names from when the family went to the car show in London some - another gulp! - 24 years ago.

"Ah," she says, before disappearing completely from view, "What are these? Photos!"

And, of course, they just happen to be pictures of Bonzo, "But we were only talking about him last night," noted the intrepid explorer somewhere from the interior.

And that's why there are photos of Bonzo on today's post, along with those of Sylvester, Kayley and Toby.

Sylvester the terrapin when small - he grew and grew!

"Why did we call him Bonzo?"

That got us puzzled: From the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band perhaps. But their name came from Bonzo the dog - an old cartoon from the 1920s and 1930s. Not that I remember him, obviously.

Bonzo cartoon 1920-30 by George Studdy

But the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band did mention the word coincidence in one of their lyrics from something they called Keynsham:

"Lipstick gleam

 Hexachloraphene 

 Cling cling the ring 

 Clang clang she sang 

 It's tragic magic 

 There are no coincidences 

 But sometimes the pattern is more obvious"

But whatever, it was good to see Bonzo again and revive a few memories, though some a little sad.

Toby the border collie

When my son was about 6 or 7 Karin had to fly off to Germany as her mother was seriously ill, so the two of us were left in charge - of each other!

Sadly, on the first day of our freedom, we had a phone call from a neighbour, something like, "Your cat's on the grass outside my house."

"Okay," I answered a bit puzzled, "Great, I'll come and get him," thinking the neighbour didn't like cats or something.

"No, it's not great," said Mrs Grumpy, "Your cat has snuffed it."

It seems our lovely Bonzo had been hit by a car and the driver had laid him on the grass and driven on.

So there was a burial in the garden.

Okay, a bitter sweet memory perhaps but, there again, there were lots of good things also brought to the surface and Bonzo lives on along with Pudd'n, Toby, Black Cat, Kayley, Herbina, Sylvester et al. Plus we've got a tidy cupboard under the stairs.

Kayley - and see how she was colour coded to the carpet we had back then

Other Pussy Cat Stories:
Winnie The Cat Was Returned After Five Years
Poppy The Cat's Red Collar Coincidence
The Power Of Lilly The Life Saving Cat

The Singing Cats

As it's Sunday some singing cats, no idea why! I came across the photo above and then by 'coincidence' just happened to see the video below. So it all fitted together nicely.


Other Posts Tagged Humour:
The Odd Comparisons Between 1912 And 2012
Humorous Funny Letters
Funny You Should Ask God About This Problem