Dear reader,
Today’s notekin is a little late. I have been busy scrambling to find a place to live while visiting my very unwell father in hospital.
So, no creative prompt today. Recently, I have been house sitting while house hunting, and during those house sits I have been looking after cats, which I love to do.
So, I thought today I’d just share some good edifying cat-content that I have hanging around on my latop.
“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” - Leonardo da Vinci
Word of the day:
Felinity. Which means to be cat-like.
“The felinity of Meredith’s urge to find a comfortable place to curl up and sleep was a defining characteristic of her approach to life.”
As with all new words, you should use it in a sentence:
Etymology of the day:
Etymology online tells us that the word ‘cat’ has been with us for a long time, coming to us from the Latin ‘catta’ and appearing as ‘catt’ in Old English in about 700AD. It would seem that cats have been with us for millennia; is anyone surpised?
Cat quotes:
“Cats are a mysterious kind of folk” – Sir Walter Scott
“What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'
'Cats don't have names,' it said.
'No?' said Coraline.
'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.” - Neil Gaiman, from Coraline
“What greater gift than the love of a cat.” - Charles Dickens.
A cat poem:
In the ninth century, an Irish monk wrote a poem about his white cat, Pangur Ban, which hunted mice while he hunted for meaning.
“Day and night, soft purr, soft pad,
Pangur Bán has learned his trade.
Day and night, my own hard work
Solves the cruxes, makes a mark.”
You can read the rest of this poem - translated by Seamus Heaney - here.
Pangur Ban is a character in the extraordinarily beautiful film, The Secret of Kells. Given that the film is set in medieval Ireland, surely the ninth century poem was the inspiration for the name of the cat in the film.
I’ve used up all of my random cat-related content. I hope you enjoyed it.
Meredith.
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This is great. Excited to find another ailurophile here!
Good luck with the house hunting and sending best wishes for your dad.