Dancing cats

 

    I haven't inherited the cat phobia which affects a swathe of my mother's family, but I've never had a cat and am, as you'll know if you're a regular visitor here, very much a dog person. However, to redress the balance a bit, I thought I'd quote the following passage which is from a footnote to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke because it conjures an amusing image. (I'm enjoying the responses to the 'Have you read it?' post, by the way). 

    To set the scene, this is an extract from a report of the case of Tubbs v. Starhouse, Starhouse being a coachman whose one great talent was a way with animals:

"... he could command cats in a way that the people of Nottinghamshire had never seen before. He had a whispering way of talking to them; any cat he spoke to would stay quite still with an expression of surprize [sic] on its face as if it had never heard such good sense in all its life nor ever expected to again. He could also make them dance. The cats that belonged to Mr. Tubbs's household were as grave and mindful of their dignity as any other set of cats, but Jack Starhouse could make them dance wild dances, leaping about upon their hind legs and casting themselves from side to side ... One of the other servants observed that if only cats had been good for any thing - which they were not - then all this might have had some point to it."

    I look forward to hearing the thoughts of Dark Puss on this unusual feline behaviour, meanwhile the picture is of a Black Cat chocolate: ganache, amarena cherries and Kirsch, from The Chocolate Tasting Club.  

Comments

[Ros]

I'm glad you explained the picture because at first glance, I assumed it was cat poo!

[Darlene]

Oh Ros, thanks for the giggle!

[Dark Puss]

Hi, I've not seen such powers myself, though I'll ask D&F next time I'm out in Geneva if they have. Your quotation reminded me a little of the character Nakata in Kafka on the Shore who has uncanny abilities to communicate directly with cats even although he has lost many of his other mental abilities in an incident towards the end of WW2.

In true aloof cat fashion I shall refrain from any comment on your first response of the day!

[pamela]

Gosh, I do love that book.
Thanks for the reminder.
It might just be the perfect season for a re-read!