If you Google “cat quotes,” you’ll find a wealth of words about art:

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece,” said Leonardo da Vinci.

“Dude, so true,” said Albert Schweitzer. “In fact, There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life – music and cats.”

“Word!” said Edgar Allan Poe. “I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.”

And so on, and so forth, ad infinitum, yadda yadda hubba bubba.

This is no accident. There’s something about cats that sends us searching for sublime analogies. Like cathedrals straining skyward to honor the holy, our stammering words try to do justice to something beyond our grasp.

So it’s fitting that a number of Tabby’s Place alumni have been named for artists of all sorts. There’s a (Charles) Dickens and a Dave (Matthews), a Frida (Kahlo) and a Mahalia (Jackson).

Most germane to today’s post, there’s a (Pablo) Picasso,* a Georgia (O’Keeffe), and a Marcel The French Poet.

What? You’ve never heard of Marcel The French Poet? Well, let’s remedy that right away, mes amis, in the words of one exceptionally Awesome Adopter:

“Ward now goes by Marcel, and that name suits him well. He is sleek and smart. We like to joke that he was a French poet in his former life. He is a gentleman!

“Mora is now called Elizabeth** (we call her Lizzie) — she is such an angel of a cat. I always tell people she is a ‘once in a lifetime’ cat. Her personality is the most sweet, loving, and funny I have ever seen in a cat. She loves to be held like a baby. Huge troublemaker, though! She cracks me up every day. She is so great with our one-year-old son, too!

“Lizzie and one of our dogs, Henry, are really bonded. Henry came about a year after Lizzie came home. She instantly liked him, and they like to hang out together in the warm and cozy places in our house while she grooms his face.”

C’est fantastique.

But if poetry’s not your thing, consider the visual arts. It was most artful of the J. Family Of Epic Awesomeness to adopt both Picasso and Georgia, oui?

“I thought you might want a short update on our little bitty kitties.

“Tomorrow will be three months since took those two little bundles of fur home. The two of them are inseparable; they are always sleeping, playing, eating together.

“Georgia is a little more reserved. She is not crazy about being picked up, but she is happy to let you pet her when she is in charge of location. My daughter is her favorite, and when I go wake her up to go to school, Georgia is always curled up right next to her on the bed. She still always purrs, all the time. Sometimes she reminds me so much of my Ghost, I swear his soul has been reincarnated in her. It makes me happy.

“Picasso — sometimes we call him Pablo — is growing like a weed. His is clearly going to be larger than his sister. His grey markings on his face are almost silver, and everyone who sees him remarks on how gorgeous he is. He is so low-key, and finds the funniest places to sleep. He reminds me of our Spooky — he takes up as much room as possible, spreading out from head to tail, as if to say ‘this is MY personal space, and no one disturb it!’

“Picasso is so mischievous. We are always finding things he is determined to hide — paper cups from the bathroom sink turned up downstairs under the hutch, my daughter’s hair bows were under the kitchen table, and we had a whole family of stuffed mice under the couch. We love him dearly.

“As you know, our Ghost and Spooky passed eight years ago. We spent eight years ‘catless,’ and the past three months have reminded me how much happiness and joy they bring. These two are truly special, and we just adore having them in our family.”

And we adore basking in the highest art form of all.

*Make that three Picassos, if you count Pablo and Paco. In fact, ‘The Three Picassos of Ringoes’ would be a bangin’ band name.

**Clearly named for Elizabeth Barrett Browning, right? Either that, or Queen Elizabeth, whose hats are serious art.

More Blog Posts