Cat Bearing Gifts

Epigraph

There is a Celtic belief that cats’ eyes are windows through which human beings may explore an inner world. In examining the power that the cat has to raise our feelings and to stimulate our imagination we can hardly fail to learn more about human nature in the process . . . The cat has not only been thought of as wholly good or evil, but has also been recognized as forming a bridge between the two. [Cat] has the power deeply to enrich our lives if, instead of obsessively loving or hating [him], we adopt a realistic attitude towards its paradoxical nature, and allow it to communicate its wisdom.

—PATRICIA DALE-GREEN, Cult of the Cat