J. R. R. Tolkien on Siamese Cat Behavior
The last thing I ever expected to be talking about on Valentine’s Day was J. R. R. Tolkien, famous author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, two odd coincidences made up my mind…
First, I found this old photo of Minkey trying to sneak into my suitcase as I packed essentials (a warm sweater, a spiral-bound notebook and The Two Towers) for a trip away from home, last year. Then I came across a letter written by Tolkien himself, in 1959, to his publishers, Allen and Unwin.
It seems a Cambridge cat breeder politely wrote to ask if she could register a litter of Siamese kittens with names taken from “Lord of the Rings”.
The Fauna of Mordor
Tolkien’s reply to his publisher was…
…”My only comment is that of Puck upon mortals. I fear that to me Siamese cats belong to the fauna of Mordor, but you need not tell the cat breeder that.”
‘Scuse me. I’m off to read this priceless gem to the Eye of Sauron, who is sleeping the sleep of the remorseless on my clean, warm towels.
(Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!)
Ha! Fauna of Mordor *indeed!* If She Who Serves the Cockatiel Lords would get *me* a Twitter account, *I’d* give you tweets, alright. And I’m the appropriate genus to tweet, at that. And I’m good at it.
Oh, hello, Gizmo, dear… Nice to hear from you! Minkey would *love* to invite you for dinner, but I fear his motives are about as pure as Sauron’s.
Tell She Who Serves The Cockatiel Lords to get you a Twitter account. You have one edge over Minkey in that you really DO Tweet.
What does Tolkien know anyway?
Just ignore the bugger! ;-D
You are a very pretty kitty!
You are good!
Here’s hoping you blog more than you did last year!
I took it as a Compliment. Minkeyservant now recognizes me as the Eye of Sauron. It’s rather pleasant, being The Eye.
I will definitely blog more than last year, now that I have figured out how to do it myself, instead of waiting for Minkeyservant.