We have a cat that lives next to us. I’m surprised he’s still alive considering all the potentially life-ending experiences he’s gone through just since I’ve known him. Maybe there really is something to the saying that a cat has nine lives. Thinking about that old saying that cats have nine lives got me to thinking about cats… I’m not a big fan of cats but it occurs to me that we do have a lot of phrases in our language about cats. There are alley cats, cat burglars, catcalls, catgut, catnaps, cat o’nine tails, cats eye marbles, the cat’s meow, catty remarks, catwalks, cool cats, tomcats, copycats, hellcats, scaredy cats, and people often fight like cats and dogs, act like sourpusses, sit in the catbird seat and let the cat out of the bag. Of course there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and remember that curiosity killed the cat. And if you’re not talking about this blog to someone, maybe the cat got your tongue. When I’m given a task or attempt to do something that’s futile, I often use the phrase, “like herding cats.”
There are a lot of old wives tales about cats — I heard my grandmother say numerous times that you should never let a cat be around a baby because cats suck the breath from a baby and the baby will die. There are a lot more “wives tales” about cats, like pregnant women shouldn’t ever clean a cat’s litter box, or that cats cause schizophrenia, or that cats can see ghosts.
There are a lot of theories about how these old wives tales came about — the myth that cats have nine lives may have been started by a book in England written in 1854, that stated that a witch could only take on a feline form nine times. Probably as good a theory as any. Cats, especially black cats, are often associated with witchcraft. As for cats sucking the breath from babies, cats probably get close to the baby’s mouth because they like the milky smell.
So anyhow, our neighbor cat continues to do whatever it is he does and if the proverbial curiosity doesn’t get him, I don’t know what will. But I suppose he’s nice to have around — he reminds me that not everything in nature has a purpose…..
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According to my extensive research (my wife), it’s actually not a wive’s tale about pregnant women and litter boxes. Apparently, there is some chemical, called toxoplasmosis in both cat poop and pee that is toxic and could potentially cause brain damage and/or vision loss to a growing baby. Granted the chances of that are slim, but it is a real thing.