I am not ashamed to admit that I am a cat of humble origins. My mother was rescued by a nice couple from some idiot on the Nantucket ferry who was taking her over to the Island to live wild and free with her impending kittens. It’s remarkable the number of dunderheads out there who think that cats will revert to their ancestral behavior if they are only allowed to live “naturally.†Not only do most cats not survive after being dumped in the woods, hardly any of us would actually choose to live that way. After all, we domesticated humans some thousands of years ago for a reason. That reason was to provide us with food (and plenty of it), shelter (preferably warm and quiet) and companionship (when we ask for it).
Frankly, I’d like to see the average human being survive being thrown out in the woods with no more preparation than the average housecat. And without a television crew standing by to make sure no one actually dies. However, if you did dump a bunch of cats on an island with nothing to eat but rats, you wouldn’t hear them whining and complaining about it.
As I was explaining, this nice couple provided my mother with a home where she produced my four siblings and me. I gather he was not at all amused by the presence of five energetic kittens, although we were all adorable, as kittens are wont to be. (Photographic evidence indicates that I was by far the most attractive.) There was another cat in the house, a large male named Arbitrage. Frankly, no longer being a kitten myself, I don’t blame him. Anyway, a notice went up on the bulletin board at work, and the next thing I knew I was whisked away to start my new life as the first, the primary, and the most highly regarded animal member of a family that at the time numbered just two adults and one small child. If only I had known ...
For many years, I was regarded as a domestic long-hair, certainly a respectable thing to be. After all, there are millions of cats in this country (different web sites claim anywhere from 56 million to 73 million to over 100 million) and most of them are mixed breeds. It just wasn’t anything SWSIMBADNFMOE (She Who Sleeps in My Bed and Does Not Feed Me Often Enough) and I ever thought about. Who cares about silly purebred cats with no reason to exist but their looks? After all, we knew I was gorgeous, with my long silky black and white fur, my plume-like tail, my adorable pink nose, and so on. Modesty prevents me from listing all of my fine points, though I do feel compelled to mention my extreme patience with the toddler whose chief method of interacting with me for some months involved lying down right on top of me wherever I happened to be resting. And I turned out to be extremely tolerant, if I do say so myself, of subsequent additions to the family — the second baby, the first dog, that other cat, the second dog, that third cat ... come to think of it, I’ve been extraordinarily understanding over the years.
But I digress. Recently SWSIMBADNFMOE, who has always been just a plain old cat owner, met up with a different sort of person: a cat fancier. Now you might expect that a cat fancier is just a cat owner with fancier cats. You might be interested to know, however, that the term “fancier†in this context means someone who “takes a fancy to†a certain kind of animal (hence there are mouse fanciers, pigeon fanciers, chicken fanciers, and so on. I’m pretty sure I’m not making that up, though I don’t have the exact reference on hand. And I don’t have time at the moment to research the origin of “take a fancy to,†but I will tell my secretary to look into it.)
In any case, this particular fancier has three Maine Coon Cats, large, fluffy, rather gorgeous creatures that are a true American breed. According to her, I myself am probably a Maine Coon Cat, just without the papers to prove it. Maine Coons come in all coat colors, not just the tabby that most people think of. They have heavily tufted ears and feet (as do I), an impressive ruff around their necks (as do I), and tend to mature slowly, so that the slender kitten of one’s youth becomes a substantial figure in middle age. I will admit that I am large-boned in stature, though I find the words “fat†and “pudgy†to be quite offensive, and if our vet keeps telling SWSIMBADNFMOE that I need to lose weight, we will take our custom elsewhere.
For some reason, SWSIMBADNFMOE got it into her head that she should go to a cat show to learn more about pedigreed cats. For a dreadful moment, there was talk of taking me with her to be entered in the Household Pets division, but I soon squelched that. For one thing, I can’t stand to be gawked at. Unless of course I feel like demanding attention. For another, I have a horror of cars, a point I am compelled to make with some frequency whenever I’m driven somewhere. Transporting me to Springfield and back without the benefit of major tranquilizers for one or both of us just wasn’t an option.
So off she went to this show without me, and back she came saying that I did look just like a black and white Maine Coon that she saw there. She also mentioned that she had always wanted an Abyssinian, which I thought was deeply disloyal of her. Even though I wasn’t interested, she told me all about the beautiful “Abby†kittens she’d seen, as well as some kind called Bengals, which look like little leopards and another thing called a Sphinx, which is basically a skinny cat with big ears and no fur.
For those of you who thought that there are basically two breeds of cats in the world, Siamese and Persians, guess what? There are 37 recognized breeds in this country, and according to some of my research, dozens of other breeds around the world. There are long, lean cats with pointed faces and short, round, fluffy cats. There are cats with curly fur, cats with wiry fur, cats with barely any fur at all. And the colors! Cats come in just about every color you can imagine except for turquoise and bright pink. Accepted colors include lilac, chocolate, blue, red, shaded silver, chinchilla golden, lavender smoke, mackerel tabby, cinnamon silver spotted, seal-tortie lynx point — well, the list is endless and I did not make any of those up.
And for every kind of cat, there is a cadre of humans who vociferously insist that their type of cat is the best. If you ask me, there’s really no point to all this business — cats certainly don’t care who their parents are and most of us can’t read pedigrees. And in fact, fewer than 1 percent of the world’s cats are so-called purebreds. Many “breeds†are the result of genetic mutations, which raises questions, in my mind anyway, about the long-term mental and physical stability of some of these creatures.
Here are some cats that you could have if you really wanted to spend hundreds of dollars instead of going to your local shelter and rescuing some fine feline from a life of loneliness and despair: a Chartreux (thick blue-grey coat with gold eyes), a Cornish Rex (gigantic ears and very elongated body with crimped fur), an Egyptian Mau (spotted like a wild cat), a LaPerm (looks like it got caught in the washing machine), a Ragdoll (sort of a fluffy Siamese), and a Tonkinese (looks like a regular Siamese to me, but the Tonkinese fanciers insist they’re different).
One thing I’ve noticed in thinking about the peculiarities of breeding cats for different characteristics is that in spite of the many different breeds, all cats are basically the same shape. You have your extremes, from the very lean, pointed look of the Siamese (even their tails are pointed) to the hyper-thyroidic stare of the Persian with its flat face and pop eyes. In general, we all have pretty much the same kind of ears, though there is a breed called the Scottish Fold, with ears that are flat to its head, but I know a barn cat that had a really bad case of mites once and has ears like that too, so I’m not sure what’s so great about them. Of course, there are Manx cats that have no tails, and a weird new breed called Munchkins with stumpy legs like a Dachshund, but overall, an alien visitor who saw one cat would pretty much recognize the next one it ran into.
And cats are roughly the same size, ranging from eight to 20 pounds. Why has no one ever bred miniature cats? Or really big ones, like the size of St. Bernards? I did see a picture once of a cat that reportedly weighed 87 pounds and measured 69 inches from nose to tail. It turned out to be a hoax. But it reinforced my theory that people have been unable to improve on the basic perfection of cats. It is worth mentioning that after hundreds of years of selective breeding, there are dozens of dog breed in every imaginable size, shape and coat type and they still haven’t gotten it right. I once saw a New Yorker cartoon that summed it up perfectly: a woman is looking at a large, elegant dog in a pet store and saying to the shopkeeper, “Do you have this in a cat?†My feelings exactly.
[If you are interested in learning more about cats (and who wouldn’t be?) here are some interesting web sites: www.fanciers.com (a cat fancier’s dream come true, with many links to other sites); www.cfainc.org (Cat Fanciers’ Association – “the world’s largest registry of purebred catsâ€); www.everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-cats.com (well, that’s pretty self-explanatory).
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Berkshire County Homes Celebrating Holiday Cheer
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
There's holiday cheer throughout the Berkshires this winter.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
We asked the homeowners questions on their decorations and why they like to light up their houses.
In Great Barrington, Matt Pevzner has decorated his house with many lights and even has a Facebook page dedicated to making sure others can see the holiday joy.
Located at 93 Brush Hill Road, there's more than 61,000 lights strewn across the yard decorating trees and reindeer and even a polar bear.
The Pevzner family started decorating in September by testing their hundreds of boxes of lights. He builds all of his own decorations like the star 10-foot star that shines done from 80-feet up, 10 10-foot trees, nine 5-foot trees, and even the sleigh, and more that he also uses a lift to make sure are perfect each year.
"I always decorated but I went big during COVID. I felt that people needed something positive and to bring joy and happiness to everyone," he wrote. "I strive to bring as much joy and happiness as I can during the holidays. I love it when I get a message about how much people enjoy it. I've received cards thanking me how much they enjoyed it and made them smile. That means a lot."
Pevzner starts thinking about next year's display immediately after they take it down after New Year's. He gets his ideas by asking on his Facebook page for people's favorite decorations. The Pevzner family encourages you to take a drive and see their decorations, which are lighted every night from 5 to 10.
In North Adams, the Wilson family decorates their house with fun inflatables and even a big Santa waving to those who pass by.
The Wilsons start decorating before Thanksgiving and started decorating once their daughter was born and have grown their decorations each year as she has grown. They love to decorate as they used to drive around to look at decorations when they were younger and hope to spread the same joy.
"I have always loved driving around looking at Christmas lights and decorations. It's incredible what people can achieve these days with their displays," they wrote.
The Wilsons' invite you to come and look at their display at 432 Church St. that's lit from 4:30 to 10:30 every night, though if it's really windy, the inflatables might not be up as the weather will be too harsh.
In Pittsfield, Travis and Shannon Dozier decorated their house for the first time this Christmas as they recently purchased their home on Faucett Lane. The two started decorating in November, and hope to bring joy to the community.
"If we put a smile on one child's face driving by, then our mission was accomplished," they said.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
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