Poe's Uncanny House Cat | Ed Sams

Edgar Allan Poe once belonged to a house cat. Her name was Cattarina. Cattarina lived with the poet, his wife Virginia, and her mother Maria Clemm in snug little houses both in Philadelphia and in New York. The Poe household was so close that none stood on ceremony. The great poet was Eddie, Mrs. Poe was Sissy, and Mrs. Clemm was Muddy. Even Cattarina had nicknames; sometimes she was called Callers, sometimes Kate. Sometimes Cattarina spelt her name with one T, and sometimes with two. That comes from living in a literary household. Sometimes Eddie signed his name E. A. Poe, sometimes Edgar Poe, once as Edgar Perry, as well as Edgar Allan Poe.

No one knows when Cattarina first became a member of the Poe family. The great Poe scholar Hervey Allen places Cattarina with the Poes either late in 1839 or early 1840 when the family moved to Coates Street in Philadelphia and "Catarina, the cat, then in her burgeoning kittenhood, purred on the ample plateau of Mrs. Clemm's lap."

Read more at   Curious Chapbooks & Hysterical Histories

The Black Cat | Based on a novel by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat."

From Esquire Magazine | 1950

The Song of the Jellicles | T. S. Εlliot

Jellicle Cats come out to-night
Jellicle Cats come one come all:
The Jellicle Moon is shining bright -
Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball.

Jellicle Cats are black and white,
Jellicle Cats are rather small;
Jellicle Cats are merry and bright,
And pleasant to hear when they caterwaul.
Jellicle Cats have cheerful faces,
Jellicle Cats have bright black eyes;
They like to practise their airs and graces
And wait for the Jellicle Moon to rise.

Jellicle Cats develop slowly,
Jellicle Cats are not too big;
Jellicle Cats are roly-poly,
They know how to dance a gavotte and a jig.
Until the Jellicle Moon appears
They make their toilette and take their repose:
Jellicle Cats wash behind their ears,
Jellicle dry between their toes.

Jellicle Cats are white and black,
Jellicle Cats are of moderate size;
Jellicle Cats jump like a jumping-jack,
Jellicle Cats have moonlit eyes.
They're quitet enough in the morning hours,
They're quitet enough in the afternoon,
Reserving their terpsichorean powers
To dance by the light of the Jellicle Moon.

Jellicle Cats are black and white,
Jellicle Cats (as I said) are small;
If it happends to be a stormy night
They will practise a caper or two in the hall.
If it happens the sun is shining bright
You would say they had nothing to do at all:
They are resting and saving themselves to be right
For the Jellicle Moon and the Jellicle Ball.

Snow in early spring | Wang Yidong

Zen Cat