James Mason & Cats
Not so long ago I posted about James Mason and how he was a cat aficionado. I also mentioned that he had published a book with his wife called The Cats in Our Lives. The book is OOP but I managed to get a copy from my library through that wonderful thing called ILL and I finished reading it yesterday.
The book was interesting you could definitely tell the Masons loved their cats (more like obsessed but hey I can relate to that). They were especially keen on Siamese but they loved anything feline. One interesting story is they took their cats with them on the train and one of them had somehow slipped under a hole and went missing. The cat rode between the seats for several trips the train took before they could find it.
The best part of the book though was the last chapter when they had arrived in Hollywood and started talking about some of the other celebrities' cats and pets they met such as the Astaires, Charlie Chaplin, Charles laughton (who was a great friend to strays), & Rouben Mamoulian's Wife, etc (I was just ecstatic to see Mamoulian mentioned at all because I doubt many people know who he is anymore).
The only negative thing I can say is James Mason and his wife were against fixing their female cats because they thought they would not feel fulfilled without kittens. This is absolutely the worst advice because of the number of strays without homes and it is just not healthy for a cat to constantly have kittens. But considering that this book was written in 1949 it's understandable that they might not know everything we know today. The operation also might not have been as safe back then.
The other fun thing about this book is James Mason did all the illustrations. While he isn't a great artist his illustrations are still pretty good considering. I took a few snapshots of some with my camera phone (so not the best quality but they serve their purpose).
"Books and cats and fair-haired little girls make the best furnishing for a room" - James Mason (quoting an old French saying)
The book was interesting you could definitely tell the Masons loved their cats (more like obsessed but hey I can relate to that). They were especially keen on Siamese but they loved anything feline. One interesting story is they took their cats with them on the train and one of them had somehow slipped under a hole and went missing. The cat rode between the seats for several trips the train took before they could find it.
The best part of the book though was the last chapter when they had arrived in Hollywood and started talking about some of the other celebrities' cats and pets they met such as the Astaires, Charlie Chaplin, Charles laughton (who was a great friend to strays), & Rouben Mamoulian's Wife, etc (I was just ecstatic to see Mamoulian mentioned at all because I doubt many people know who he is anymore).
The only negative thing I can say is James Mason and his wife were against fixing their female cats because they thought they would not feel fulfilled without kittens. This is absolutely the worst advice because of the number of strays without homes and it is just not healthy for a cat to constantly have kittens. But considering that this book was written in 1949 it's understandable that they might not know everything we know today. The operation also might not have been as safe back then.
The other fun thing about this book is James Mason did all the illustrations. While he isn't a great artist his illustrations are still pretty good considering. I took a few snapshots of some with my camera phone (so not the best quality but they serve their purpose).
"Books and cats and fair-haired little girls make the best furnishing for a room" - James Mason (quoting an old French saying)