"...'There's tact for ye, Janet,' said Janet's spouse with approval. 'There she is, heaving like a burstit horse tae get her word in. It's not about Peter Cranston - oh, he and the Donati woman are that thick it's no decent - but Sybilla could do with a visit. Richard keeps on at her about you and Gabriel quarrelling, and Joleta's pining, and Masterly ate something he shouldna and died.'
Masterly was Lady Culter's beloved cat, and his end was recounted to a pattern of screams from the elder Lady of Buccleuch. 'Wat Scott, ye big-mouthed auld thief. That was my news!'
'Well, ye were too slow. Ye've a mouth like the West Bow. Use it!' said her husband complacently.
Will Scott's curious gaze hadn't left Lymond. 'It wasn't news anyway,' he said to his stepmother. 'Francis has called at Midculter and seen Sybilla - isn't that right?'
'Two days ago. I presided over Masterly's funeral and dodged the doting Joleta,' said Lymond..."
Dorothy Dunnett, The Disorderly Knights, Part Three, THE DOUBLE CROSS, VI, The Hand on the Axe (St Mary's, 1551/2)
Dec 13, Drama Entered, Mincing Like a Cat.
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Illustrations (Details): Jacobo BASSANO, Jan BRUEGHEL the Elder, Alexandre-François DESPORTES, Jan FYT, Book of Hours MS M.282, fol. 133v, Frans SNYDERS, LEONARDO da Vinci |
A comparison of genes between different wild cats shows that the domestic cat comes from the Middle East, and its lineage is more than 100,000 years old. European wildcats have remained a distinct species and are not related to domestic cats.
In contrast to other domestic animals, cats were probably not originally kept as farm animals, but rather as a kind of useful company. This community probably goes back to the first farmers in the fertile crescent: their grain stores attracted rodents from the area, which in turn attracted wild cats. According to the current theory, it was the useful ability of the animals to decimate the annoying rodents that led people to keep them near by.
The former wild cats got used to humans, but to this day they don't actually need the two-legged friends to survive. Nevertheless, her relationship with humans is a success story - with dark spots.
In the 10th century, domestic cats were rare in Europe and therefore valuable. According to a Welsh law around AD 940, a settlement could only call itself a village or hamlet, if it had nine buildings, a plough, a kiln, a butter churn, a rooster, a bull, a shepherd and - a cat!
The prices for a cat fluctuated. In the Saxon Mirror, a German law book written in 1220-1230, damage to a cat was fined at three pfennigs. This was not a small sum, for a lamb or a cow it was four pfennigs.
Until the 12th century the cat was considered a good household spirit in Europe, but in the late Middle Ages the church demonized the cat. Their natural behavior such as noiseless stalking and nocturnal hunting, extensive cleaning and loud courtship and mating became suspicious. Added to this, was their indomitable way of not allowing to be tamed like other animals. Cats were seen as the embodiment of evil, they were considered wrong, addicted to cleaning and being a demon of the night, lazy and hypocritical.
But little by little, they were valued again as useful mice and rats hunters. However, distrust and some prejudices persisted for a long time.
In the 18th century, the social recognition of the cat increased. The breeding and selection of special breeds experienced its first highlight.
At the beginning of the 19th century there were enough cat lovers to organize public meetings and have the most beautiful animals awarded by professional breeders and amateurs alike. Harrison Weir, who was a writer, poet, fervent cat lover and member of the Horticultural Society, staged the first public cat show on July 13, 1871 at London's Crystal Palace.
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