Anyone who knows me knows that cats are by far my favourite animal, so today lets cover famous cats and their famous owners. When I lived in England my house was about one hours drive from Chartwell which was the country residence of the famous British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It is now owned by The National Trust and open to the public, I visited there more than once, I enjoyed walking in the well kept grounds and toured the house itself including the Great Man’s study on more than one occasion. I fancy his dominant spirit still lingers here and there and as some of his personal effects are still on view on his desk and elsewhere this adds to his presence, you almost expect him to come walking through the door, if you are in Kent you could spend a worse afternoon than visiting Chartwell.
But what is that to do with VetBlog I hear you say, well when you wander in the gardens of Chartwell you will see a secluded shady area which houses the graves of his pets and in his study and elsewhere are photographs of his cats and other animals. You see Sir Winston although he could on occasion be somewhat vexatious and to some degree eccentric { This may be an understatement! } with people, he just loved animals and cats in particular. If you look carefully as you go on a walk round the grounds and house at Chartwell you will come to understand that Sir Winston was an animal lover, it is well documented elsewhere that he particularly liked ginger cats. In fact after he died there was a provision that there should always be a ginger cat called Jock in residence at Chartwell and the National Trust has respected his wishes. The original Jock was said to be on his bed when he died at his residence in London and has since passed on himself, but if you have the privilege of visiting the Great Man’s house then you may well encounter Jock number three or four! I do not often provide links within my articles as for very obvious reason I like to keep readers on this site for as long as possible but here is a link to an excellent article on Winston Churchill and his cats, you might like reading it I certainly did. LINK.
Of course Churchill was not the only famous cat lover there were and are many more, Ernest Hemmingway for example is well documented as having shared his Key West home with more than 30 cats. An acquaintance who was also a sea captain gave him an unusual six-toed male cat. Like Chartwell I have also visited Hemmingway’s house and can vouch for the fact that there still six toed cats in the grounds, no doubt descendants of the original one which was given as a present. A quote ascribed to Hemingway goes as follows, “A cat has absolute emotional honesty; human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”
Albert Einstein was another, he kept a cat named Tiger whom I assume was a un-neutered tom because Albert was quoted as saying, “A man has to work so hard so that something of his personality stays alive. A tomcat has it so easy, he has only to spray and his presence is there for years on rainy days.” A quick ” google ” on the subject of famous people and their cats will I am sure bring up many more such as Freddy Mercury, Dusty Springfield, various Popes, my favourite author H G Wells and many others. However like all aspects of life we have concentrated today on the famous, of course in my thirty year veterinary career I have also encountered many ordinary people who also loved cats, were devoted to them and looked after them in an exemplary fashion.
Since I am in the rare mood of handing out links to outside sites here is another one : Chartwell
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