In a visual presentation of information about John Lennon, Buzz Feed tell us that ‘He had a strong affection for cats, actually having owned as many as six at a time’. In short his history of cat guardianship indicates that he was a true cat lover; an ailurophile.
The picture supports this. I had no idea. You might know that Freddie Mercury also had a strong affection for domestic cats and he had several cats. There is a great similarity.
There is still a huge following for John Lennon. He was and still is loved by many. He has a Twitter account! Well, not him personally but the people who manage his estate. It has almost half a million followers. He died on 8 December 1980.
I have always claimed that people who like domestic cats and who are guardians to companion animals are more likely to be decent people. An excellent cat guardian is almost guaranteed to be a good person 🙂 .
I suspect that Yoko Ono also liked cats. Although he was part of the greatest song writing team with Paul McCartney, he was dissatisfied with all The Beatles’ records.
History of Lennon’s love of cats – this is probably incomplete
Lennon’s mother liked cats. She was the guardian of a cat named Elvis. This may have been a catalyst for Lennon’s interest in domestic cats. They discovered that Elvis was female when she gave birth to a litter of kittens in a cupboard. The name remained unchanged.Mentalfloss say that he was crazy about cats. He also ‘owned’ a couple of dogs over the years.
Lennon had two other cats when he was a kid in Liverpool. They were Tich and Sam. Sam was named after Samuel Pepys. Tich died between 1957-1960 while Lennon was at art school.
Tim was a ginger tabby Persian-mix stray cat that Lennon found in the snow. John was raised by Aunt Mimi who allowed him to keep the cat. He named the cat Tim. Tim remained a special favourite of John and he survived to celebrate his 20th birthday. John would pop down to the local fishmonger to buy some fish for Tim and his other cats. Even after John became a successful popstar he would call back and check on Tim to see how he was getting on. Does this picture of George Harrison and a white cat show us Tim?
John’s first wife, Cynthia (she died 1 April 2015) clearly loved cats as well. They first had a cat named Mimi after John’s aunt and a tabby cat who they called Babaghi (exotically). We are told that they continued to acquire domestic cat companions and eventually became the guardians of around 10.
John also had a cat while he was a popstar and a member of The Beatles whose name was Jesus. The cat story continues. Apparently, in the mid-1970s John had an affair with his secretary, May Pang. At the studio one day a receptionist brought in a box full of kittens. John did not want to adopt any of them because he travelled too much but May picked one of the kittens whereupon John decided to stroke her. They decided to keep the cat.
At the close of work there was one white kitten left who was very vocal. They decided to adopt this kitten as well and they named the pair Major and Minor.
John Lennon’s cat owning days continued with a pair of black-and-white cats called Salt amd Pepper. They also owned two Russian Blue cats (purebred) which they named Gertrude and Alice. It is said that the only time that Sean saw his father cry was when Alice jumped out of an open window in his father’s high-rise apartment at Dakota. The cat was killed.
In later years John also had three cats he named Misha, Sasha, and Charo. He liked to sketch his cats and use them as illustrations for his books. He was quite definitely a huge cat lover.
[box background=#FFFACD align=center border=true border_rule=’border-css’ border_radius=4 color=#000 margin=1 padding=1 shadow=1 style=’style-rules’ width=80]Two associated pages:
Last known photo of Freddie Mercury was with his cat Oscar
Loki, the celebrity Sphynx cat, died soon after teeth cleaning[/box]
History of cat ownership from Mental Floss.
