by H. P. Lovecraft
It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroe and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungles lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten.
In Ulthar, before ever the burgesses forbade the killing of cats, there dwelt an old cotter and his wife who delighted to trap and slay the cats of their neighbors. Why they did this I know not; save that many hate the voice of the cat in the night, and take it ill that cats should run stealthily about yards and gardens at twilight. But whatever the reason, this old man and woman took pleasure in trapping and slaying every cat which came near to their hovel; and from some of the sounds heard after dark, many villagers fancied that the manner of slaying was exceedingly peculiar. But the villagers did not discuss such things with the old man and his wife; because of the habitual expression on the withered faces of the two, and because their cottage was so small and so darkly hidden under spreading oaks at the back of a neglected yard. In truth, much as the owners of cats hated these odd folk, they feared them more; and instead of berating them as brutal assassins, merely took care that no cherished pet or mouser should stray toward the remote hovel under the dark trees. When through some unavoidable oversight a cat was missed, and sounds heard after dark, the loser would lament impotently; or console himself by thanking Fate that it was not one of his children who had thus vanished. For the people of Ulthar were simple, and knew not whence it is all cats first came. more @AmericanLiterature.com.
Sounds like my kind of people. You let your cat out at its own risk. When they kill my Cardinals and Robins, the cat has to go.
in Napa, Ca, the couple that lived directly behind me killed neighborhood cats.
had done so for decades.
cost the lives of several of my cats b4 I figgered out who was doing it.
the man almost wet himself when I told him what would happen to him if I lost a cat for any reason.
I made sure everyone in the small neighborhood knew.
the couple were ostresized for the rest of their lives …………
Decades ago, my bird nut accountant admitted to me that she poisoned neighborhood cats. She also exterminated rats and possums. And she warn’t too fond of them lawyers, neither. But that’s another story.
There are 4 pair of nesting Eagles within sight of my front door and they love to eat cats, collar and all.
Do you have a story about what happens to politicians who stray? Love to hear it.
Sounds a little like Hansel and Gretel, beware all of you wandering kitties because curiosity killed the cat. 😿
No mercy for cat killers.
Me rikey kitty-kitty.
Here, kitty-kitty!
I just talked to a friend today who had a cat episode. He picked up a feral kitten which scratched him. The scratch turned into a major infection that put him in the hospital for four days. The infection affected his kidneys for which he is now seeing a doctor. The kitten has since died on its own.
Thanks, MJA, that was a good story, reading time well spent. I’m also grateful for the site link; I may be spending some time there!
Lovecraft has been a favorite since my junior high English teacher recommended him after I did a paper on a Poe short story. Lovecraft’s universe and interwoven mythos sucked me right in and I tore through everything our local library had (which was actually pretty extensive).
Here, for all you cat lovers and haters I present,
http://www.buckstix.com/CoehornMortarHunt.htm
The French used to gather all the cats in the village, put them into a great net, and burn them alive.
It was outlawed after the Church discovered that the villagers went into some sort of ecstatic, drunken frenzy (and, sometimes, orgy) at the cat-burnings.
Same reason bear-baiting was outlawed in England.
Can’t recall where I read that – but I didn’t make it up.
izlamo delenda est …
@Tim: was it around the time of the Black Plague?
The guy who used to live behind me trapped my cat and took it to the pound, but didn’t want to pay the $74 drop-off fee so he turned it loose in the desert next to the Humane Society. Luckily for me, he wasn’t smart enough to take her collar off and after about 10 weeks I got a call from a family 11 miles away from me who had seduced my sweet girl into their home with food and finally gotten close enough to her to read her tags. (They are the ones who told me cats get dumped in that desert all the time by people who find out there’s a fee to take a cat to the Humane Society.)
After I picked her up (and thanked the family profusely), I sent a two-page letter to all fifty houses in my little neighborhood, telling them what had happened. Eff that guy. His home went into foreclosure within the year and it was auctioned off. Karma’s a bitch.