Why so many famous artists (of all kinds) have cats..

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

This is really interesting.  I love cats and dogs and just about all creatures.  This looks at cats and creative people.

5 comments on “Why so many famous artists (of all kinds) have cats..”

  1. I deliberately chose to reply to this post last; because I find it quite evocative. For the record, I love both cats and dogs, and feel that these animals, along with equines and other domestic animals are a gift from our Maker. To a dog, whatever you are doing, that is that likely dog’s highest priority. With cats, they set the priority level, and if they take interest in what you do, it feels like a moment of victory.

    If my cat isn’t lying on the bed when I am ready to fall asleep, I’ll call her, and she usually comes, but almost never right away. She hears me call, and puts it on her to do list, but it’s usually a few minutes before she finishes whatever it is that she is doing, and then takes her place on the bed, to my left, slightly below shoulder level. If I get out of bed for any reason, after that, she usually stays put, and watches me with a look of expectation. Bedtime is a routine, and we are both expected to stick with the routine.

    Cats are intelligent, but most cats are not as verbally oriented as dogs. Some people confuse this with stupidity, aloofness, arrogance, or other negative traits, but I just see this as the natural order of priorities that cats possess. They don’t respond as well to verbal cues as dogs, because words just aren’t important to them. However, when they do respond, such as when my cat finally comes after I call, once again, it feels like a victory.

    I am not a graphic artist of any sort, but I am serious about my music. My cat seems interested in my music, and many times she will watch intently when I play my guitar. She detects that my right hand generates the sound, and seems to understand that my left had plays a role, but the right hand seems more interesting to her. Much of the time, I am plugged into an amplifier and she completely understands that the sound she hears from the amplifier, 6-8 feet away, is initiated by my right hand picking the strings.

    She prefers softer, more mellow sounds, but finds pretty much anything I play to be interesting. Once, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. I grabbed an electric guitar hanging nearby, and played it quietly, without amplification, and with the lights out. After I had relaxed a bit, I switched on the lamp in order to be able to safely place the guitar back on its hanger, and was surprised to realize that she was, perhaps, one foot in front of me, and had been listening to my playing. You can’t buy that kind of endorsement, and I relish it more than anything some critic might pen.

    I have long said that dogs are beer, and cats are cognac. That is not an insult to dogs; there’s nothing wrong with beer. I might have the occasional beer, or Mike’s Hard Lemonade after coming in from mowing the lawn, when I am both hot & tired, and guzzling down a cold beer really hits the spot.

    OTOH, cognac is an end of day beverage, to be savored and consumed relatively sparingly. A small vessel of cognac, served at room temperature and sipped slowly, can be very pleasant and relaxing, which ties right back to the video, because cats are at their best in the quiet hours of the day. When the day’s work is done, and it’s time to relax, and possibly reflect upon the day’s events. That’s how it works for me.

    As I write this, my lovely little Siamese just jumped up on my recliner. My recliner is wider than normal most, because I want to be able to sit to the left side of it and have room for a guitar on my lap. But my cat thinks that the eight inches or so of available space to my left was divinely appointed as her spot, so I choose a smaller solid-body guitar, and we somehow make it work. But the value she adds to my evening, just by stretching out next to me, lightly snoozing, is inestimable. In a little over an hour, it will be bedtime, and if I am late about going to bed, she will remind me that it’s time to turn in for the night. And so the routine goes, and that’s just fine be me.

    Why does this (musical) artist have a cat? Because she makes everything in my day just a little bit better.

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    1. I think that’s a great analysis of the difference between cat and dog behavior. They are different. Dogs also are pack animals, where cats are solitary hunters. That affects the personality as well. Female cats are often much more timid than male cats, because they have to raise kittens on their own, which makes them cautious. Our cat Buster was a social director. Anyone who came here was greeted, welcomed, and generally OK. My girls, however would run upstairs and hide when someone came to the door. Nobody taught them that behavior, it was just wired in.

  2. All very true. I find that female cats tend to be more affectionate. A Tomcat will quietly lie on your lap, but at least with the female cats I’ve had, they tend to lick your fingers and seem more engaged.

    At one time, I had a big dignified Tomcat and then I took in a rescue cat who had been fending for herself for some time. Although she was the smaller of the two, she immediately became the dominant cat and ran the feline aspect of the household to her liking.

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    2. It was funny, because she was much smaller, but it was like seeing a Kung Fu master going up against a boxer. She was twice as fast as he was.

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