Quotations For Fans of Our Feline Friends

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.
*Joseph Wood Krutch - Twelve Seasons

I have just been given a very engaging Persian Kitten... and his opinion is that I have been given to him.
*Evelyn Underhill

When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?
*Michael Eyquem De Montaigne

I would never wound a cat's feelings, no matter how downright aggressive I might be to humans.
*A. L. Rowse 'Three Cornish Cats'

A cat that lives with a good family is used to being talked to all the time.
*Lettice Cooper 'Parkin'

Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.
*Mark Twain, Notebook

It's hard to believe but some people claim their cats are almost human - and they mean it as a compliment!
Cats are rather delicate creatures and they have many different ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.
*Joseph Wood Krutch 'February' The Twelve Seasons

Cats, like men, are flatterers.
*Walter Savage Landor 'La Fontaine and De La Rochefoucault'

I can say with sincerity that I like cats... A cat is an animal which has more human feelings than almost any other.
*Emily Bronte

A black cat dropped soundlessly from a high wall, like a spoonful of dark treacle and melted under the gate.
*Elizabeth Lemarchand

We have cats the way other people have mice.
*(signed) Mrs C. L. Footloose

You always ought to have tom cats arranged, you know - it makes 'em more companionable.
*Noel Coward 'Cat's Cradle'

Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of.
*Sir Walter Scott

What cats most appreciate in a human being is not the ability to produce food which they take for granted but for his or her entertainment value.
*Geoffrey Household 'Rogue Male'

The cat. He walked by himself and all place were alike to him.
*Ruyard Kipling 'Just So Stories' 1902

The cat and dog may kiss, yet none are better friends.
*Latin Proverb

The fog comes on little cat feet.
*Carl Sandburg 'Fog'

A. L. Rowse is the only person I know who used to ring up one of this cats from the United States. They apparently had lively interchanges.
*Roy Strong quoted in The Times 5 Nov 1983

The cat is hungry when a crust contents her.
*English Proverb

If cats could talk, perhaps we'd find it just as ard to get along with them as we do with people.
[Animals] are Brethren, they are not underlings they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time.
*Henry Beston

The cat knows whose lips she licks
*Latin Proverb

The cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet.
*13th Century Proverb

A cat in gloves catches no mice.
*16th Century Proverb

Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals, "love" them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more.
*Edwin Way Teale 'April 28' Circle of the Seasons

The best thing about animals is that they don't talk much.
*Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
*George Orwell

Cats - a standing rebuke to behavioural scientists... least human of all creatures.
*Lewis Thomas

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
*George Eliot

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
*D.H. Lawrence

Isn't it wonderful how cats can win friends and influence people without ever reading a book.
I think one reason we admire cats, those of us who do, is their proficiency in one-upmanship. They always seem to come out on top, no matter what they are doing - or pretend they do. Rarely do you see a cat discomfited. They have no conscience, and they never regret. Maybe we secretly envy them.
*Barbara Webster

Cats are living adornments.
*Edwin Lent

The trouble with cats is that they've got no tact.
*P G Wodehouse

It was soon noticed that when ever there was work to be done the cat could never be found.
*George Orwell 'Animal Farm'

You are my cat and I am your human.
*Michael de Montaigne

I hate a word like 'pets': it sounds so much like something with no living of its own.
*Elizabeth Jennings - My Animals

According to legend a cat has nine lives. For three he strays, and for the last three he stays.

Feline Useful Addresses


Feline Advisory Bureau,
350 Upper Richmond Road,
Putney, London SW15 6TI.
Telephone: 01-789-9553

The Cat’s Protection League,
17 Kings Road, Horsham,
West Sussex RH13 5PP.
Telephone: 0403 65566

The Cat Association of Britain,
Cat Association Central Office,
Hunting Grove, Lowfield Health,
Crawley, West Sussex RH11 0PY.
Telephone: 0293 23470

The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy
4-6 Penel Orlieu, Bridgewater,
Somerset TA6 3PG
Telephone: 0278 427575

The Cat Action Trust
P.O. Box 1639
London W8 4RY

Cats,
5 James Leigh Street,
Manchester M1 6EX
Telephone: 061 2360577

Cat World,
Scan house, Southwick Street,
Southwick, Brighton BN4 4TE
Telephone: 0273 595944

Kennel and Cattery Management
PO BOX 45, Dorking,
Surrey RH5 51Z
Telephone: 0306 712712