Comments

1. 

   Tom Chatfield

   August 10, 2011 at 21:13

   Hi, this is Tom. For those of you who enjoyed the piece - or just enjoy cat pictures (I'm sure there are a couple online) - you might be interested to know that you can see a picture of my cats in one of their standard lying-on-my-desk-while-I'm-trying-to-write postures on my website... http://tomchatfield.net/2011/08/05/the-cult-of-cats/

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2. 

   Stephanie Azran

   August 11, 2011 at 17:04

   Thanks for the fun article. Cats always get this sort of treatment, described cute, cuddly and occasionally evil little opportunists. Thanks for giving them some credit for so masterfully manipulating us! Cats have recently surpassed dogs as the most popular pet in the US, and I hope this means we can get more of them out of the shelters. They are brilliant creatures, and maybe one day some one will write a book that doesn't just repeat the same old stories and show the same old images, but goes a bit deeper, and discusses the interesting relationship between cats, women (and men), and sexuality. There is a great painting by Bonnard called L'Homme et la femme. Check it out!

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3. 

   JamesZ

   August 11, 2011 at 19:29

   Great piece. But - according to reports in the latest New Yorker - some scientists now reckon that dogs may also have domesticated themselves http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_gopnik We people just aren't as special as we used to think...

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4. 

   Dianne

   August 11, 2011 at 20:40

   I do not hate to say this but think you shoule know following all the political activity taking place in Madison, Wisconsin that this is one of the few states in the U.S. where they formed an organization so it would allow them to shoot cats. Their ideas on domestication, defining whether the cat is or is not,are quite extreme. Look up the list of books written by historian Robert Darnton. My copy of his publication on the Persecution of Cats seems to be missing behind a wall of boxes for packing books. I do not doubt that my most recent house cat is reading it at her leisure

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5. 

   o. nate

   August 12, 2011 at 20:10

   I think this article underestimates the usefulness of cats in keeping mice away. In any case, for most people these days, dogs are scarcely more useful than cats.

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6. 

   Eveline

   August 15, 2011 at 17:16

   My Pumah (now sadly demised) had a simple solution: he opened the fridge and had me running to save the contents.

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7. 

   Pitchfork

   August 17, 2011 at 22:11

   Well here's one human who is not projecting anything onto cats, at least I don't think so! However, my neighbours' cats defecate all over my garden and there aren't any birds to enjoy because of them, so they do indeed represent something to me, viz: the extraordinary indifference of cat-keepers to the unpleasantness they inflict on everyone else. And that, in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, is all I have to say about that!

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8. 

   dug kimmel

   August 18, 2011 at 12:37

   very interesting read,but my cat is somewhat "outside the box"

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9. 

   The cult of cats | Prospect Magazine | Guy B. deBros

   December 19, 2012 at 14:13

   [...] The cult of cats | Prospect Magazine [...]

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10. 

    girl

    February 8, 2013 at 03:58

    That's exactly the opposite of the current view, as I understand it. Cows and sheep and maybe dogs and other thoroughly domesticated animals coevolved for the advantages of living alongside human communities. Cats we kidnapped from the wild as kittens because we wanted to and that's why they're different. So the cat fascination came first!

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