www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall For cat lovers.

Wow, I never knew that JPII had a cat...wait till I tell my Ari (my poor, beleagured cat who just had 'the operation', poor guy).

Alex, I thought saints were painted with lions because of a)Isaiah's prophecy about the lions lying down with the lambs or b) Christ being called the Lion of Judah? I rather like the idea that it was because of cats since my own feline's name comes from the Hebrew for Lion...

Vie

Dear Vie,

Certainly, one could draw those parallels . . .

But cats were always a popular pet with saints in history - and in other religions.

They are very mysterious creatures and are "purr-fect" for those who live alone . . .

A friend of mine once found a baby squirrel on the side of the road and decided to take it home.

She hand-fed and hand-raised it for about a year and then let it go.

The squirrel still comes into her home for dinner at night.

On Saturdays, she lets the squirrel into the house in the morning and it runs up the stairs where it jumps up on the bed and plays with her husband!

That's a true story, in case you think I'M nuts . . .

Alex

I've always loved dogs, cats, and in general all animals of the world but I've never been able to bring myself to keeping one 'confined' in my house. There's something to be said about a dog running free across the fields. I've always said to my wife, if we ever moved to a house on a few acres, I'd definately get a dog.

I too am a lover of spiders. My wife makes me capture them in our house. little does she know, I put them down in our (unfinsihed) basement to explore and keep the other bug population at bay.
I believe that spiders are a sign of good luck and safety.

Brad - wishing he had "Spidey" sense.

Dear Brad,

At one point last summer, we had a very large spider spin a web to the left, outside our front door.

We saw him their daily - and he was under the night light where bugs migrated at night - he was a smart one that!

I soon began to have "feelings" for him . . .

As it grew colder, I wondered, what can I do for him . . .sniff . . .

But he eventually went away, as my insectologist friends told me, to hide for the winter.

I hope he comes back, my Felix . . . sniff . . .

Alex

Good evening all.

Catholic News Service ran a story today about Pope Benedict XVI and his love for cats. Here are a couple of extracts:

"According to an April 21 Knight Ridder news story, the new pope loves cats. The story quotes a theologian who said he accompanied then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to a church near St. Peter's Basilica where Masses are said in German. After celebrating Mass, the cardinal went to the cemetery behind the church to visit the many cats who lived there.

"It was full of cats," Konrad Baumgartner told Knight Ridder, "and when he went out they all ran to him. They knew him and loved him. ... His love for cats is quite famous."

The story also notes that the new pope and his brother collected plates with images of cats."

The CNS story also noted "...then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had said in a German press interview last year that animals must be respected as "companions in creation."

In the interview, he said that while it is licit to use animals as food, "we cannot just do whatever we want with them. ... Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible." "

This shows another aspect of this multi-faceted, multi-talented Pope.

Peace,

Charles

Dear Charles,

He's the "cat's meow" in more ways than one!

Thanks for posting that!

Alex

From Anhelyna's neighborhood, another Pontifical cats tale:

Quote

�He was a follower and servant of the late Pope John Paul II,� Vatican-based Colombian cardinal Lopez Trujillo told Colombian radio RCN. �He is a simple man, serene, cordial, with a fine sense of humour and very kind. ... No one has seen him in a moment of indisposition of rancour or intolerance. These are myths the press invented.�

Another cardinal, Italian Tarcisio Bertone, who had worked as Ratzinger�s top aide, described how the new pope always paid attention to the street cats around the Vatican and how they sometimes followed him as he walked to his office.

Bertone joked: �One time the Swiss Guards had to intervene, �Look, your eminence, the cats are laying siege to the Holy See�.�

The Rev Anthony Figueiredo, a Rome-trained theologian at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, said the pontiff was making the needed transition from the rigid role of �defender of doctrine� to the world stage as �unifier and spiritual leader�.

Benedict �will be very firm on doctrine. We know that,� said Figueiredo. �But you will see a man who is much more approachable than this reputation as an authoritarian, Germanic figure.�

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4437603

John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck

Hamlet's Cat's Soliloquy

To go outside, and there perchance to stay
Or to remain within: that is the question:
Whether 'tis better for a cat to suffer
The cuffs and buffets of inclement weather
That Nature rains on those who roam abroad,
Or take a nap upon a scrap of carpet,
And so by dozing melt the solid hours
That clog the clock's bright gears with sullen time
And stall the dinner bell. To sit, to stare
Outdoors, and by a stare to seem to state
A wish to venture forth without delay,
Then when the portal's opened up, to stand
As if transfixed by doubt. To prowl; to sleep;
To choose not knowing when we may once more
Our readmittance gain: aye, there's the hairball;
For if a paw were shaped to turn a knob,
Or work a lock or slip a window-catch,
And going out and coming in were made
As simple as the breaking of a bowl,
What cat would bear the household's petty plagues,
The cook's well-practiced kicks, the butler's broom,
The infant's careless pokes, the tickled ears,
The trampled tail, and all the daily shocks
That fur is heir to, when, of his own free will,
He might his exodus or entrance make
With a mere mitten? Who would spaniels fear,
Or strays trespassing from a neighbor's yard,
But that the dread of our unheeded cries
And scratches at a barricaded door
No claw can open up, dispels our nerve
And makes us rather bear our humans' faults
Than run away to unguessed miseries?
Thus caution doth make house cats of us all;
And thus the bristling hair of resolution
Is softened up with the pale brush of thought,
And since our choices hinge on weighty things,
We pause upon the threshold of decision.

-- Shakespaw

Henry Beard's "Poetry for Cats" is brilliant!

Gaudior, who is particularly fond of "The End of the Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe's Cat

Alex,

Thanks for the post about your friend who raised an orphaned squirrel. I raised two orphaned baby squirrels, Rocky and Bullwinkle, once upon a time and had fond memories brought back by your anecdote.

My own trio of felines are all delighted that His Holiness is fond of their ilk.

Many years,

Neil

I grew up with a dog, never wanted a cat, now I have two and couldn't imagine life without them. When Tigger and Pepper hear the roasry beads, no matter what time of day it is, both come out and sit with me in front of our icon corner, so to me the cats know what's happening or the Blessed Mother must have a love for cats!

Dear Neil,

That is simply wonderful!

I saw a TV program about a man who was diagnosed with cancer and his veterinarian friend gave him a pet flying squirrel - who was with him in bed and slept on his cancerous wound!

His companionship helped him overcome his disease and now the little squirrel is literally all over him, day and night.

I have a squirrel menagerie that comes to our backyard for their daily ration of sunflower seeds.

Quite by accident, I ran over a squirrel who just leapt out into the street under the wheels of my car - and I was going quite slowly in that neighbourhood.

I was heart-broken. When I fed my squirrels the next day, I faced them and told them in my own words what I had done, without intending to, and I asked them to forgive me for killing one of their own.

Alex

Dear Seraphim,

There is a medieval tradition of portraying the Mother of God with cats - they truly do belong to her!

Just like the Lady-bug was named for the Mother of God or "Our Ladye's" bug and was a medieval symbol for her, just as the honey-bee is, the Jonquil, the "Lady's Mantle" and other flowers.

Alex

I have to use a C-PAP machine when I sleep, it is due to the fact I have Obstructive Sleep Apnea, whereby at times I do not inhale enough air to keep me airway open when asleep, also causes problems with oxygen to the brain. Both of my cats: Tigger and Pepper know that if sometimes at night I accidently knock off the C-PAP mask and the sound of rushing air doesn't wake me up, Pepper walks up and down my leg as I sleep on my side and Tigger head butts me and on several occasions has even put her paw in my mouth to wake me up! Although the paw in the mouth as I told Tigger can have the opposite effect. And I heard a woman who is a Protestant one time remark that "Catholics are crazy taking animals in their churches in October, they are just pets!" I reminded her God did tell Noah to gather one male and one female of every animal in the ark before the flood.

Dear Seraphim,

Bravo! Bravo!

And, as you know, St Seraphim of Sarov was a great lover of God's creatures, great and small.

For he knew that the good Lord in Heaven had made them all . . .

Sniff . . .

Alex