What affects us affects cats
Why do black cats have a reputation for evil? It appears that an overzealous and cruel German priest and nobleman, Konrad von Marburg kick started the superstitious link between black cats and Satan in 1232. The conventional view is that Pope Gregory IX “initiated the feline Holocaust in Europe” by denouncing the black cat …
Halloween is sadly upon us 😒😎. This holiday season does lead to some cat abuse because of the link between black cats and Halloween. It is an unpleasant association at heart because it harks back to Medieval times and the chronic and widespread abuse of domestic cats for hundreds of years. Black cats are …
Kattenstoet is an uncomfortable amalgamation of ancient cat persecution and modern cat celebration. In English it is the ‘Festival of the Cats’. It is a parade that takes place in Ypres, Belgium every three years and the next occasion is 2024. The reason why it takes place every three years is because it’s so …
Cat superstitions still exist big time. They are considered to be a part of history but this is simply untrue. Nowadays superstitions surrounding the cat are tied up with a lack of knowledge of the cat and, frankly, sometimes distrust and dislike of the cat, just as was the case in medieval Europe. Education …
This is a topic that interests me: how artists of the mediaeval era depicted domestic cats in their paintings. And I’m sure that they felt that they were painting an accurate representation of the domestic cat before them. But by today’s standards they are quite poor for one reason: they humanised them. They painted …
