Mark Twain's 176th Birthday

Mark Twain and Kitten

Today is Mark Twain's 176th birthday. Twain had a great fondness and appreciation for cats. In honor of the author's birthday, I'd like to share a few quotes about cats by the famous cat devotee.

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A home without a cat -- and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat -- may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?

   - Pudd'nhead Wilson
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Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

- Notebook, 1894

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By what right has the dog come to be regarded as a "noble" animal? The more brutal and cruel and unjust you are to him the more your fawning and adoring slave he becomes; whereas, if you shamefully misuse a cat once she will always maintain a dignified reserve toward you afterward--you will never get her full confidence again.

- Mark Twain, a Biography

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Twain's Cats Fast Asleep

Photo: Elisha M. VanAken 1887

Twain gave his cats many unusual names including Sourmash, Sackcloth, and Straykit. The Mark Twain House and Museum website has a word search puzzle featuring Twain's cats you can find HERE.