1)
Sir Issac Newton invented the first known cat flap.
While he was in his attic trying to conduct light experiments, his cat kept nudging the door open and letting the light in, spoiling his experiments.
Not wanting to upset her, he decided to cut a small opening in the doorway which he then covered with felt attached to the top of the opening – and voila! The very first cat flap had arrived!! Now cat and master were happy – the cat could come and go at will, and Isaac wasn’t disturbed by her comings and goings, and could continue his experiments in peace.
It is said that all geniuses sometimes have a blind spot and when his cat had kittens, so anxious was he to please them, that he cut several smaller holes alongside the original one so that they could come and go whenever they wanted to. It didn’t occur to him they could use the existing one!
2)
Sir Winston Churchill Churchill's marmalade cat Jock slept with his master, shared his dining table, and attended numerous war-time Cabinet meetings. If Jock was late for meals, Churchill would send servants to find him, waiting to eat till the cat was present. Jock was said to have been with his master when he died. Jock was also mentioned in the PM's will.
3)
Ernest HemingwayHemingway shared his home with more than 30 cats. Hemingway once said, "A cat has absolute emotional honesty; human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not."
4)
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)Hugo is considered one of the greatest author in the history of French literature, one notable book being Les Miserables. He wrote fondly in his diary about his cats.
5)
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)American PresidentAbraham Lincoln came into presidential office accompanied by Tabby, his son's cat. Tabby was the first of several White House cats.
6)
Muhammed (570-632) Prophet, Founder of the Muslin faithMuhammed loved cats. The story is told that one day when he was being called to pray he noticed his cat, Muezza, sleeping on the folds of his sleeve. Rather than disturb the sleeping cat, Muhammed cut off the sleeve of his robe. They say that in the place where the prophet (peace be with him) was laid to rest, there is a cat or cats around the area.
7)
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) Humanitarian
One of Florence's cats was a large Persian named "Bismarck". She owned more than 60 cats in her lifetime.
8)
Nostradamus Seer and Prophet (1503 - 1566)
This French astrologer had a cat named Grimalkin. The definition of a grimalkin evolved to "A cat, especially an old female cat."
9)Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)US PresidentTheodore had a polydactyl grey cat called "Slippers".
10) Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) German theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician, Nobel Peace Prize winnerCats played an important role in Dr. Schweitzer's life. He rescued a kitten a kitten after he heard her plaintive "meow" under the floor of a building under construction.
Named Sizi, she sat on his desk as he wrote, often falling asleep on his left arm - during these times Dr. Schweitzer, who was left-handed, wrote prescriptions with his right hand. This went on for 23 years. Another cat, Piccolo, slept on papers stacked on Dr. Schweitzer's desk; if someone needed the papers, they were required to wait till the cat awoke. Schweitzer once said: "There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
11)
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910) American humorist, novelist, writer and lecturerTwain kept eleven cats at his farm in Connecticut. He wrote, "I simply can't resist a cat, particularly a purring one. They are the cleanest, cunningest, and most intelligent things I know, outside of the girl you love, of course."
He also quipped, "If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way" and "The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he won't sit upon a cold stove lid, either.”
12)
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci, artist, writer, mathematician, engineer, architect, botanist, musician, and inventor, was an animal lover with a particular fondness for cats. He once wrote “The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men” and asserted that “The smallest feline is a masterpiece.”
13)
Raymond Chandler -
talked to his black Persian, Taki, as though she was human and called her his secretary because she sat on his manuscripts as he tried to revise them
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Difficult as it is to believe, not everyone loves cats. Genghis Kahn was a famous cat-hater and so were Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. It may be that men with dreams to dominate the world can’t get used to the idea that cats won’t submit to them. The same streak of ailurophobia (cat hate) affected the personalities of Napoleon Bonaparte, Benito Mussolini, and Adolph Hitler.
Cats are wondrous creatures because unlike dogs..they have a will of their own. They are the queen of the household. Dogs are born to be servants. Cats are just born to be served.
