itt: historical pets named and unnamed

thx 4 new screen name

this is byron's dog boatswain (the poem to him is apparently not by byron but by his close friend john hobhouse)

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/11/29/1385740481027/Lord-Byrons-dog-Boatswain-002.jpg

http://barkpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/dog-byron-612x287-copy.jpg

https://silverbirchpress.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/white_cat_buk1.jpg

THE HISTORY OF ONE TOUGH MF
by Charles Bukowski

he came to the door one night wet thin beaten and
terrorized
a white cross-eyed tailless cat
I took him in and fed him and he stayed
grew to trust me until a friend drove up the driveway
and ran him over
I took what was left to a vet who said,”not much
chance…give him these pills…his backbone
is crushed, but is was crushed before and somehow
mended, if he lives he’ll never walk, look at
these x-rays, he’s been shot, look here, the pellets
are still there…also, he once had a tail, somebody
cut it off…”
I took the cat back, it was a hot summer, one of the
hottest in decades, I put him on the bathroom
floor, gave him water and pills, he wouldn’t eat, he
wouldn’t touch the water, I dipped my finger into it
and wet his mouth and I talked to him, I didn’t go any-
where, I put in a lot of bathroom time and talked to
him and gently touched him and he looked back at
me with those pale blue crossed eyes and as the days went
by he made his first move
dragging himself forward by his front legs
(the rear ones wouldn’t work)
he made it to the litter box
crawled over and in,
it was like the trumpet of possible victory
blowing in that bathroom and into the city, I
related to that cat-I’d had it bad, not that
bad but bad enough
one morning he got up, stood up, fell back down and
just looked at me.
“you can make it,” I said to him.
he kept trying, getting up falling down, finally
he walked a few steps, he was like a drunk, the
rear legs just didn’t want to do it and he fell again, rested,
then got up.
you know the rest: now he’s better than ever, cross-eyed
almost toothless, but the grace is back, and that look in
his eyes never left…
and now sometimes I’m interviewed, they want to hear about
life and literature and I get drunk and hold up my cross-eyed,
shot, runover de-tailed cat and I say,”look, look
at this!”
but they don’t understand, they say something like,”you
say you’ve been influenced by Celine?”
“no,” I hold the cat up,”by what happens, by
things like this, by this, by this!”
I shake the cat, hold him up in
the smoky and drunken light, he’s relaxed he knows…
it’s then that the interviews end
although I am proud sometimes when I see the pictures
later and there I am and there is the cat and we are photo-
graphed together.
he too knows it’s bullshit but that somehow it all helps.

would def hang out with bukowskicat

maybe not so much with bukowski

when he dialled down the boorishness and machismo he could be an awesome writer of prose and poetry.

more macho softies that liked cats (the one that didn't write the sun also rises is called snowball and was *squints* a pterodactyl)
http://cms.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/hemingway_cats.jpg

(actually if colour is anything to go by this isn't snowball)

inevitably:
http://cms.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/burroughs.jpg

tremendous stuff:
http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/mf_image_3x2/public/twain_cats.jpg

this is byron's dog boatswain (the poem to him is apparently not by byron but by his close friend john hobhouse)

He only had the friggin' dog for 5 years, the, er, big girl's blouse.

tough crowd

The poem on Boatswain not being by Byron - where's that from? I can only find the introductory lines being reattributed.

(Curious, because I fondly remember staring at Boatswain's tomb on an acid day out to Newstead Abbey.)

wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitaph_to_a_Dog

but reading more carefully i see that it's saying (or i think it;s saying) that the lines clazino q

wtf try again:

from wikipedia but reading more carefully i see that it's saying (or i think it's saying) that the lines that calzino quoted are by hobhouse, and the lines below it (on the inscription) are byron's viz:
When some proud Son of Man returns to Earth,
Unknown to Glory, but upheld by Birth,
The sculptor’s art exhausts the pomp of woe,
And storied urns record who rests below.
When all is done, upon the Tomb is seen,
Not what he was, but what he should have been.
But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his Master’s own,
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,
Unhonoured falls, unnoticed all his worth,
Denied in heaven the Soul he held on earth –
While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven.

Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power –
Who knows thee well, must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,
Thy tongue hypocrisy, thy heart deceit!
By nature vile, ennobled but by name,
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.
Ye, who behold perchance this simple urn,
Pass on – it honours none you wish to mourn.
To mark a friend’s remains these stones arise;
I never knew but one -- and here he lies.

Consider the Brownings' dog Flush

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/FlushBiography.jpg

and of course Samuel Johnson's cat Hodge

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Hodgecat_flickr.jpg

Boswell:
"I never shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat: for whom he himself used to go out and buy oysters, lest the servants having that trouble should take a dislike to the poor creature. I am, unluckily, one of those who have an antipathy to a cat, so that I am uneasy when in the room with one; and I own, I frequently suffered a good deal from the presence of this same Hodge. I recollect him one day scrambling up Dr. Johnson's breast, apparently with much satisfaction, while my friend smiling and half-whistling, rubbed down his back, and pulled him by the tail; and when I observed he was a fine cat, saying, "Why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;" and then as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, "but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed."

This reminds me of the ludicrous account which he gave Mr. Langton, of the despicable state of a young Gentleman of good family. "Sir, when I heard of him last, he was running about town shooting cats." And then in a sort of kindly reverie, he bethought himself of his own favourite cat, and said, "But Hodge shan't be shot; no, no, Hodge shall not be shot."

dunno if this one counts as a pet per se but here is félicette the astrocat, who was sent into space by the french space agency in 1963 and remains (iirc) the only spacefaring feline

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e0/Felicette%2C_spacecat.jpg/220px-Felicette%2C_spacecat.jpg

she survived her 15-minute journey to the heavens and on her return she was uh promptly put down so scientists could study the effects of space travel on her li'l kitty body

here she is catloafin', admittedly a bit uncomfortably, before making her trip

http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-111717a-lg.jpg

disappointed to find out because of this thread that Isaac Newton's pyromaniac dog Diamond is possibly apocryphal

i give u stubbs the cat, honorary mayor of talkeetna, alaska from 1997 until his death last year

https://mediaassets.abc2news.com/photo/2017/07/24/poster_0654595f21fa4f53a8c38997953db8df_63308082_ver1.0_640_480.jpg

Culann the smith invites Conchobar to a feast at his house. Before going, Conchobar goes to the playing field to watch the boys play hurling. He is so impressed by Sétanta's performance that he asks him to join him at the feast. Sétanta has a game to finish, but promises to follow the king later. But Conchobar forgets, and Culann lets loose his ferocious hound to protect his house. When Sétanta arrives, the enormous hound attacks him, but he kills it in self-defence, in one version by smashing it against a standing stone, and in another by driving a sliotar (hurling ball) down its throat with his hurley. Culann is devastated by the loss of his hound, so Sétanta promises he will rear him a replacement, and until it is old enough to do the job, he himself will guard Culann's house. The druid Cathbad announces that his name henceforth will be Cú Chulainn—"Culann's Hound".[16]

years later setanta, using his given name, recorded mega-smash 'smooth' with rob thomas of matchbox 20

Wow that's an ancient heritage of a proud people you're mocking there man

you're right, i apologise if any matchbox 20 fans were offended by my previous post itt

https://goo.gl/images/ZxUt1e

https://s10.postimg.org/c8ow8xdkp/slon2.jpg

The Romanovs had a pet elephant, which doesn't appear to have been named. The rest of St Petersburg society apparently thought it was a huge waste of money and made the royal family look frivolous.

The elephant was shot with the rest of the family.

steady on lads that's taking revolution a bit too far imo

Quite a task getting the elephant down to the basement.

credit where credit's due tho, it takes an especially brave revolutionary fighter to enclose himself in a basement with an angry elephant and try to shoot it enough times to kill it before it kills you

http://www.estherbubley.com/images/large/life_moore_bird.jpg

To a Prize Bird
by Marianne Moore

You suit me well, for you can make me laugh,
nor are you blinded by the chaff
that every wind sends spinning from the rick.
You know to think, and what you think you speak
with much of Samson's pride and bleak
finality, and none dare bid you stop.
Pride sits you well, so strut, colossal bird.
No barnyard makes you look absurd;
your brazen claws are staunch against defeat.

(i think the cockatoo in the picture is actually from a zoo, rather than MM's: many of her poems are about animals)

félicette the astrocat, who was sent into space by the french space agency in 1963 and remains (iirc) the only spacefaring feline

Au contraire

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0839/5903/products/978163106361.jpg?v=1492119402

vanilla ice and his pet kangaroo bucky buckaroo
https://www.trend-chaser.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2016/12/012-vanilla-ice-has-a-real-life-kangaroo-768661.jpg

http://20.theladbiblegroup.com/s3/content/e542f2c65872d6e3c48cce5e62aab923.jpg

I was trying my best to resist posting the pic of Edmundo getting a monkey drunk, till now....

is that from this excellent account?

Neymar having a nap with his dog pic.twitter.com/2d8mA3zb5a

— Footballers with animals (@ftbllrswanimals) February 18, 2018

that’s an ape u savage xp

Faustino Asprilla teaching his horse how to play football whilst dressed as a Tyrannosaurus rex pic.twitter.com/ldkRrPGtfe

— Footballers with animals (@ftbllrswanimals) February 10, 2018

lol you just xped me!

No, but I saw that priceless one of Asprilla teaching a horse football, dressed as a dinosaur from that account, lol!

braziian composer alberto ginastera: cat has just heard ELP's version of his piano concerto
https://www.ludwig-van.com/toronto/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/04/Ginastera.jpg

what a scene-stealer

(AG once said the reason he stayed in buenos aires to compose was to be near the cat)

https://www.meisterdrucke.com/kunstwerke/500px/John%20Doyle%20-%20Le%20Mort%20George%20IV%20(1762-1830)%20caricature%20of%20the%20King%20grieving%20the%20death%20of%20the%20giraffe%20at%20London%20Zoo%20printed%20by%20J%20Netherclift%20and%20pub%20by%20McLean%201829%20London%20(hand-coloured%20engraving)%20-%20(MeisterDrucke-46248).jpg

In 1827 the then-viceroy of Egypt gave away three live specimens: one to King George IV of Britain, a second to Charles X of France and a third to Franz II, Emperor of Austria.

The giraffe that George IV was gifted suffered terrible leg injuries during transit and had a wretched 2 years in England and was barely mobile by the time she died. French caricature ripping into him above.

Gérard de Nerval shown up in this thread yet?

https://strangeflowers.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/simpsons_pinchy.jpg

http://kengarex.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/W0h1xUR.jpg

wanda gag, the author of millions of cats
http://kengarex.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/gQLBbVM-5.jpg

http://millionsofcats.weebly.com/uploads/9/2/7/1/9271119/1102127.png?1319741888

Walter Rothschild, interesting guy...

https://www.theawl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/0GsJDWCXy3C_DfELY.jpg https://www.theawl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/0znELEwwJpxxcHhqK.jpg

dali and gág via this resource (this is edward gorey)

Famous Artists and Their Cats (30 photos) https://t.co/H5kJrmutAa pic.twitter.com/14fIEMEK4z

— Kengarex (@kengarex) February 18, 2018

Just hit the first mention of Anthony Powell's cats in the Spuring bio:

"The Powells moved in with Tony's sofa, accumulated books, a refrigerator that had been a wedding present (still a relatively unusual acquisition in the 1930s), and whatever furniture they could scrounge, borrow or buy from junk shops and auction sales. They also brought their first cat with them, an intelligent and observant Siamese called Bosola after the multiple murderer in John Webster's play The Duchess of Malfi."

millions of wanda gág:
https://louisesanfacon.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/wanda-gag-1893-19461.jpg

despite that tho i'm sure he was a good kitty

Firefighters rescue dog from #Telford house roof https://t.co/E6LS78evs7 #Shropshire pic.twitter.com/YzDdFSqcPJ

— SHROPSHIRE (@DailySHROPSHIRE) February 26, 2018

"Scorpion mating is highly stylized with a sequence of behaviors and mating is indirect, with the
male producing an external spermatophore that he guides the female to pick up. In the common
striped bark scorpion the female initiates the mating, making abrupt advances and retreats to a
potential mate that it encounters. A receptive male then responds with a back and forth rocking
moving known as “juddering”. This is followed by “clubbing”, striking the other scorpion with
the tip of the abdomen, but without stinging. The scorpions then clasp each other with their
pedipalp claws and draw near enough to engage in a “cheliceral massage” - a scorpion version of
a kiss."

i’ll be in my bunk

scorpion erotic fiction

"Like his spiritual hero, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Robespierre retained an enduring affection for dogs. He delighted in their companionship, and after long days spent toiling in the National Convention, was often seen walking his beloved hound, Brount, through the Champs-Élysées in Paris. "

the day that (the seal's whiskers in the aquarium in) hel (in poland) froze over

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXIQAraXUAAeYq_.jpg

There’s a ‘famous’ cat in St. Andrews you used to see in the pubs all the time - there’s a statue to him now, but it looks so unlike him I wonder if I’m remembering the same cat.

Iannis Xenakis riding in a kayak with his dog. pic.twitter.com/t53RTJhFMR

— composers doing normal shit (@NormalComposers) June 1, 2022