Everyday Canvas

Cats, Authors, and Earth

Prompt: "Authors like cats because they are quiet, loveable wise creatures and cats like authors for the same reason." Robertson Davies.
Do you agree with this statement or does this apply to dogs? Write what you want about this.


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I am not sure I fully agree since all cats may not have all those attributes of being quiet, lovable and wise, as this statement might be the result of starry-eyed human imagination, giving human traits to animals. For the same reason, this may or may not apply to dogs.

Speaking for myself, I believe every animal has its own characteristics, and having cats and dogs live with me in my earlier life, I have come to experience and respect each animal’s very unique behavior and likes and dislikes.

It is a fact, however, that authors have historically loved their cats and used them in their work. When we went to Key West and visited Hemingway’s place, I was stunned by the large number of cats living there. This was due to the fact that, during his travels, Hemingway was given the gift of a six-toed (or polydactyl) cat he named Snowball. Hemingway loved this cat, and in 1931, when he moved to Key West, he let Snowball run wild, creating a small colony of cats that populated the grounds of his home.

Hemingway was not the only one, though. T.S. Eliot, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mark Twain, William Butler Yeats, Charles Dickens, and many other authors, historical or contemporary, have followed in their footsteps in making friends with their cats. The reason is the authors' sense and aptitude of looking inward and finding in their cats what they couldn't find in other human beings so readily.

Cats know when and how to let people in, and they can purr and ease anxieties and lighten traumas. Plus, a cat can be as narcissistic as the author and can make him exert himself for the cat’s affection. Spending time and effort on a cat as if a cause or a project can alert the author to the cat’s being, so he familiarizes himself with the cat and comes to feel love for it. Then, at the end, after seeing the results of his efforts and feeling the success, he becomes enslaved by the cat.

I think this is exactly what happens to the authors who can’t be without cats.

By the way, the cats I had were not quiet and lovable all the time, but they were all wise. Some of them wanted what they wanted when they wanted it, but they were also very sensitive creatures who knew when I needed their friendship and affection better than any human could.

Prompt: Earth is our home and nature gives us so many gifts. Do you agree?

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Yes, of course. To begin with, I don’t see myself adjusting to any other planet in existence with this earthly body I am made to live in. Through this body, I am related to all other life forms here, and as I am part of the earth, its gifts are for me as well as for the other creatures living in this world.

The most important things the earth gives us are free, like the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil we raise our crops, flowers we enjoy, and honeybees, birds, and other animals that enrich our lives. Unlike the American Indians, however, we aren’t taught to give back to the earth.

Forget about giving back, we humans even destroy the earth’s gift-giving capacity, just like a person who cuts the tree branch he’s standing on. Thus, for our species to survive, we need to learn from the mistakes we are making, and we need to change, not in the distant future but immediately before it is too late.