itt: historical pets named and unnamed

Ancient carved wooden dog discovered in Monck’s Cave, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand
https://teara.govt.nz/files/p16221cmu.jpg

derrida with his cat logos*
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9sp5xbqb3ok/UfX-Q1wRqJI/AAAAAAAAAHo/LvgUnvjPp-Q/s1600/derridas-cat.jpg

*lol

pinterest resource in this general area

(elsewhere the internet is claiming that foucault called his cat INSANITY and sartre called his NOTHING)

hmm

https://piximus.net/media2/44613/medieval-cat-paintings-that-will-crack-you-up-7.jpg

leo x's pet elephant hanno (1510-16)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Hanno2.png

http://www.dogster.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/guinefort-medieval-saint.jpg

There is also the story of Guinefort, the saint dog – in the 13th century Stephen de Bourbon explains that the peasants near the French city of Lyons were saying prayers at the grave of a dog named Guinefort and reporting that he was doing miracles, especially for infants. He inquired with the peasants and learned this story:

There was a certain castle whose lord had a baby son from his wife. But when the lord and lady and the nurse too had left the house, leaving the child alone in his cradle, a very large snake entered the house and made for the child’s cradle. The greyhound, who had remained there, saw this, dashed swiftly under the cradle in pursuit, knocking it over, and attacked the snake with its fangs and answering bite with bite. In the end the dog killed it and threw it far away from the child’s cradle which he left all bloodied as was his mouth and head, with the snake’s blood, and stood there by the cradle all beaten about by the snake. When the nurse came back and saw this, she thought the child had been killed and eaten by the dog and so gave out an almighty scream. The child’s mother heard this, rushed in, saw and thought the same and she too screamed. Then the knight similarly once he got there believed the same, and drawing his sword killed the dog. Only then did they approach the child and find him unharmed, sleeping sweetly in fact. On further investigation, they discovered the snake torn up by the dog’s bites and dead. Now that they had learned the truth of the matter, they were embarrassed that they had so unjustly killed a dog so useful to them and threw his body into a well in front of the castle gate, and placing over it a very large heap of stones they planted trees nearby as a memorial of the deed.

I think Frederick the Great is an interesting story of a dog lover and had free-roaming greyhounds and whippets in his castle and was buried with some of them. His dad was a brutal thug + more the type to set fire to a dog (or the unfortunate von Gundling who was treated lower than a dog) for a laugh. Frederick had a greyhound called Biche that was a gift from his executed lover Lieutenant von Katte, that when it died - sent him into a black hole of depression. Some of this might be mixed up, it's half from memory of the Chris Clark book and some wiki bollox.

Holt, Pyewacket, Jarmara, Vinegar Tom, Sacke and Sugar, Newes, Elemanzer, Peck in the Crown and Grizzel Greedigut

https://mysticcauldron.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/familiars.jpg

This oddly looks like an advert for some BBC show.

imps win prizes

I'm guessing this Matthew Hopkins chap might not be the congenial host type...

(not really relevant to the thread, but i always liked that witch-hunting began to fizzle out in england in 1712, when the judge, sir john powell, ensured the reprieve of the accused jane wenham by crossly pointing that that there is in fact "no law against flying”, and setting aside her conviction)

https://www.mimimatthews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/tom-and-jerry-sporting-their-blunt-on-the-phenomenon-monkey-jacco-macacco-at-the-westminster-pit-by-george-and-isaac-cruikshank-1821.jpg

In some settings, the aggression of the monkey was actually encouraged. Jacco Macacco was a famous fighting monkey during the early 19th century. A small monkey, weighing in at only 10 – 12 pounds, he was matched against dogs of similar weight in the fighting pits of Westminster. Toward the end of his career in the 1820’s, he was forced to fight against dogs who were double his weight. According to some accounts, it was in such a match that he was ultimately killed. His death prompted a petition against animal cruelty in the House of Commons. The May 1822 issue of The Monthly Magazine reports:

“In the House of Commons, Mr. Martin, of Galway, presented a petition from a number of respectable inhabitants of Camberwell, in support of the Bill now pending to prevent cruelty to animals. The Hon. Member detailed the conduct of the man who keeps a place in Westminster, where Jacco Macacco, a monkey, has exhibited his prowess; ‘this unfortunate animal, (said Mr. M.) after having fought many pitched battles, was pitted against a dog of double its weight; Jacco, fought the dog for half an hour, and the battle terminated by the dog tearing away the whole of the monkey’s lower jaw, and the monkey’s ripping up the dog’s stomach. Both animals died in a few minutes.’ Even the carcass butchers of Whitechapel, aware of the atrocious cruelties committed, have united in a petition for a Bill to restrain the unfeeling practices of mankind.”

"Even the carcass butchers of Whitechapel"

Mention must be made of Jeremy Bentham's pet cat, The Reverend John Langhorne (possible link to that Good Names For Cats thread that's been doing the rounds).

are the "carcass butchers of whitechapel" just, like, actual normal butchers (all of whom work with carcasses) except they live in whitechapel?

they exclusively work with human carcasses I think, but they have hearts of gold.

Would a tragically mismatched bout to the death between The Reverend John Langhorne vs Jacco Macacco have really troubled these fucking milquetoast carcass butchers of whitechapel?

sorry I'm losing the plot here and will retire!

the only other internet reference i can find to them under this particular title is in cobbett's commentaries, where they are petitioning parliament for a bill to punish the ill-treatment of cattle

(cobbett thinks the bill is silly: he says the carcass-butchers should pay more and hire less brutal cattledrivers)

these bloody centrists never change!

oops, missed the pay more bit there!

Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler, with Hitler holding Blondi on a leash.
Species Canis lupus familiaris
Breed German Shepherd
Sex Female
Born 1941
Died Circa April 4, 1945
Nation from Germany
Occupation Propaganda dog
Employer Adolf Hitler
Notable role Avatar of German animalhood
Known for Germanischer Urhund
Owner Adolf Hitler and family
Offspring Wulf

Blondi's offspring lasted about as long as Goebbels kids by the sound of it!

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://s13.postimg.org/v80e8scpj/892_FAD2_F-508_B-4243-_AB20-_D11_CFE6_B7_D29.jpg

Jim Jones and Mr Muggs ^

It sounds completely ludicrous but Jones did a lot of recruiting work for the first incarnation of the People’s Temple while working as a door-to-door spider monkey salesman.

The Munich Mouser in downing st c. 1940
http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/famous/humphrey/black-cat1-wartime.jpg
from
http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/famous/humphrey.html

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7136/7553199418_926bd44490_z.jpg

USC mascot George Tirebiter

"George Tirebiter was a shaggy mutt who – for a few glorious years in the ’40s and ’50s – became a beloved Trojan mascot.

No one is quite sure when George wandered onto campus, but his feisty personality made him a student favorite as he chased cars and bit tires along University Avenue, not far from where you stand.

He was taken to football games in a limousine where he led the Trojan marching band onto the field, often wearing sweaters and odd little hats. He once drew the cheers of thousands when he bit the mask of UCLA mascot, Joe Bruin, on the nose.

Rumor has it there is a transcript on file showing George with a GPA of 3.2 in such courses as Chasing Cats 101 and Biting Tires 270.

Of all the great USC mascots, none had the bite of George Tirebiter."

aww i love that

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/06/15/glasgows-cover-girl-cat/26bb4135-71a1-4e5a-8346-c42ea810234b/?utm_term=.959a46c93cf4

http://messybeast.com/images/thai-breed-chart.jpg

I believe Colette's cat was named Minnalouche.

some great photos and film of colette with (and without) her cats and dog -- also some annoying music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUiS5vCWucU

love this thread

btw i have a friend whose cat is named Grendel

https://mythofsyph.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/lenin-and-cat.jpg https://c300221.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/c-1920s-lenins-cat-in-the-retronaut-1363634472_org.jpg

in ancient Egypt cats (called "Mau") were quite highly esteemed, to the point of mummification and deification. this cultural tradition lasted thousands of years:

So deeply implanted also in the hearts of the common (Egyptian) people is their superstitious regard for these animals and so unalterable are the emotions cherished by every man regarding the honour due to them that once… one of the Romans killed a cat and the multitude rushed in a crowd to his house, neither the officials sent by the king to beg the man off nor the fear of Rome which all the people felt were enough to save the man from punishment, even though his act had been an accident.

Diodorus emphasis that the Egyptians were actually at that time trying to court the Romans: we are in the last generation of Egyptian independence. Ptolemy wanted proper recognition from the Senate and certainly didn’t want to give the Romans any reason to raise the eagles: ‘at this time when Ptolemy their king had not as yet been given by the Romans the appellation of ‘friend’ and the people were exercising all zeal in courting the favour of the embassy from Italy which was then visiting Egypt and, in their fear, were intent upon giving no cause for complaint or war’. Diodorus’ point was that the normal rules of war and peace are suspended when cats were involved.

http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/04/18/when-cats-killed-men/

http://www.strangehistory.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/mummified-egyptian-cats.jpg

i remember watching a tv documentary abt animal mummies where they dug up a long-buried hopper full of mummified kittens which basically looked exactly like potatoes

lenin also mummified iirc

Dante Gabriel Rossetti: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-9L3uBUQAASnn1.jpg

Chekhov with Bromin and Quinine:
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/1d/d3/ba/1dd3ba8eb41e3b19ff49eda31dad38fe.jpg

He also had a mongoose.

Twain with a big dog: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/05/42/8a/05428a2de572ca8080f4d9f24ffb5d7f.jpg

And of course, Edith Wharton:
http://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/6a00d8341c192953ef0168e6033739970c.jpg

These are her dogs Mitou, Miza and Nicette :
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/507dba43c4aabcfd2216a447/t/544e6adce4b0d70e824a56cb/1414425309258/Wharton%E2%80%99s+dogs+Mitou%2C+Miza+and+Nicette

great dogs

speaking of glasgow cats, the university of glasgow had a longstanding feline visitor named miller who caused a minor media sensation when he died at age 18 a few years ago

BUILDING could be named after Glasgow University’s famous ‘Adam Smith’ cat following his death.

The feline, real name Miller, died this week after 18 years as a much loved fixture around the campus that gave him his nickname.

And university sources say upcoming expansion of its main Gilmorehill campus could provide the opportunity for the legendary cat to be commemorated.

A source said: “We know he was much loved by students and the wider community.

“The redevelopment of the campus could provide us with a chance to name a building after him, or erect a statue.

James Harrison wrote: “I’ll always remember Miller poking in to my tutorials when I was in first year. He was a lovely cat and really cheered up a lot of students on campus.”

Owner Laura Kerr, 33, said the beloved moggy deteriorated quickly over the past few days.

The hairdresser said: “It’s been a very sad week but the overwhelming amount of love and support have helped the grief.

“It’s hard to believe he’s gone, I kind of thought he was invincible.

“It’d be fair to say that over his 18 years he used up all of his nine lives between squaring up to big dogs, run ins with cars and vanishing for weeks on end.””

he was a very regal boy

https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article5025460.ece/ALTERNATES/s1227b/1782045_980833121936403_5762892326494290964_n.jpg

Pangur Bán, 9th-century Irish poem as translated by Auden:

Pangur, white Pangur, How happy we are
Alone together, scholar and cat
Each has his own work to do daily;
For you it is hunting, for me study.
Your shining eye watches the wall;
My feeble eye is fixed on a book.
You rejoice, when your claws entrap a mouse;
I rejoice when my mind fathoms a problem.
Pleased with his own art, neither hinders the other;
Thus we live ever without tedium and envy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangur_B%C3%A1n

oldest cat recorded, NUTMEG, died last year aged 32 RIP: nutmeg, pictured, was never here for yr shit

https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/31-year-old-cat-nutmeg-7.jpg

me irl

nutmeg reminded me of this thread and the venerable COCKY BENNETT (below): the very very very old parrot

http://images.smh.com.au/2011/08/31/2593473/cockybennett2729-420x0.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CgVkb1TWQAEqPGF.jpg:large

XP Millions of Cats is a hellish tale

trim the cat discovered australia

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Trim%2C_the_cat%2C_in_Donington%2C_Lincs_-_geograph.org.uk_-_218735.jpg/220px-Trim%2C_the_cat%2C_in_Donington%2C_Lincs_-_geograph.org.uk_-_218735.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