Among many other things, I'm an artist, independent curator, website designer, father to two daughters and especially a lover of cats - both wild and domestic...
Like most cats I prefer living a solitary life but crave human attention. . .
I've lived most of my life with cats - and a few dogs - many were males. I don't remember ever paying for a cat; they were either gifts of a breeder or adults that needed a home. Many had been abused or abandoned. Maybe as a child of parental abduction I identified with these cats - who knows? All my feline friends were "fixed" - meaning they were females that were spayed or males that were neutered.
"All cats (except the lion and some feral domestic cat colonies) are solitary animals that hunt and fend for themselves. They only come into contact with members of the opposite sex during mating periods... Cats are also very territorial and mark out the perimeter of their "homeland" with their urine. In urban areas our domesticated cats still exhibit these behavioural traits, creating serious problems for male tom cats who inevitably fight with each other as they cross each others territories in search of on-heat females. Neutering can help to reduce the nuisance caused by calling and fighting cats, as well as reducing the number of unwanted litters." ~ provet petfacts
My first cat, at the age of 6 on Cape Cod, was a very large black male I named "Blackie." Not afraid of dogs, he was once seen 'riding' on the back of an annoying boxer.
That boxer never came near our house or neighborhood after this painful and humiliating experience. Later, when we were forced to leave our family homestead for a smaller house in a mid-Cape housing development, Blackie keep returning to our original residence.
While attending Swain School of Design, an art school in New Bedford, I had a number of strays; including a feral cat which nearly destroyed my apartment - I had it removed to a farm in South Darmouth where it lived in the woods.
While attending Boston University's School of Fine Arts during the 1960s, I had a number of feline pets. The one I remember most is "Mykonos," who lived with me on Hemingway Street. It was not the best of times for either of us - let's leave it at that...
While graduate students at the University of Cincinnati, my spouse and I were given two male Siamese kittens from our landlady. We called them "Grunts" and "Little." They were from the last litter of their 18+ year old mother - whose vet had been the famous doctor, animal rights advocate, and Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Albert Schweitzer.
"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things,
man will not himself find peace."
Grunts had little coordination and once jumped - for no apparent reason - out of a three-story window of our apartment, landing - unhurt but shocked and bloated with adrenaline - on the cement walk below. Highly intelligent and lots of fun, these Siamese lived with us on Mt Adams, Cincinnati, Ohio; Bell Island, CT; and finally at DHS in Wellesley, MA.
During the years our daughters grew up in Wellesley we had a number of pets, including another Siamese, "Molly" the Irish setter, many African swimming frogs and beta fish, a few gerbels, a minor bird (who gave cat-calls early each morning to people walking past our apartment), and even a Checkered Giant Rabbit with a black stripe on it's back (pic).
In the 1980s, after divorce, I moved into Artists West Association in Walthan and accepted responsibility for a huge male Maine Coon cat who had been abused by his former owners. It took him over a year to learn to trust me; but after that, he was one of the most friendly of all my feline friends. We lived together for many years in my Moody Street art studio and most likely helped each other to heal from a traumatic period in our lives. The drawing below is a self portrait of Me and with my Maine Coon Cat that I gave to my youngest daughter, Emily:
Artist: Scattergood-Moore
Title: Me and My Maine Coon Cat c. 1985
Medium: Ebony pencil on paper
Size: 14" high x 12" wide
Collection of Dr. Emily D. Scattergood
When I moved into a condo at Claflin School Studios in Newtonville, I had a long-haired male tiger named Chester, who came to me from a friend of a friend who was dying of HIV/AIDs. This handsome but shy cat died in my arms of stomach cancer. I thought this would be the last of my feline friends, but my vet had other intentions...
Today I share my living and studio space with a beautiful calico known only as The Studio Cat because she spends most of her time in the art studio. She came to me from a cat hoarder in Boston that had more cats (20-40!! - there were so many I didn't count them) than she could cope with. My vet recommended her to me because he had seen that the calico was not socializing with the other cats in the tiny apartment.
The Studio Cat seems very content to be living a more solitude life today in suburbia; she spends most of her days in the studio and nights at the corners of my bed. As she has gotten older, she sometimes disappears under my bedspread during cold winter days and nights. Like other calicos, she is not much of a cuddler but enjoys lying in my lap while I watch television. She is cautious but sociable with other adults - especially artists!
Scattergood-Moore
P.S. In 2007 I was fortunate to go on a safari in Tanzania, East Africa! I viewed "The Big Cats" - lions, leopards & cheetahs - in the wild. I did not see the smaller serval cat.
Cats have captured the imagination of ordinary and extraordinary people worldwide ever since they were domesticated in pre-history. Following are a few examples of famous people who shared their lives with, and were inspired by, their feline companions. Of course there were many more...
Albert Schweitzer and "Sizi"
William "Bill" Burroughs and cat
The Studio Cat'S Friends & Neighbors
ABOUT CATS
THE BOOK OF THE CAT 1903
Auther: Miss Frances Simpson
Publisher: Cassell & Company
Calico cats are not a breed; they are a very specific color characteristic. They are tri-colored with colors in distinct patches, not mixed as in a tortoiseshell.
NEARLY ALL CALICO CATS ARE FEMALE...
"To better understand this mystery, lets have a brief, very basic, review of genetics. Each mother cat's offspring will carry a pair of sex chromosomes, XX or XY, the result of which will make the kitten either a girl or a boy. The mother passes an X chromosome down to it's creation and the father passes either an X or a Y. If the offspring receives the Y, it's genetic composition will be XY and it will be a male.
However, color and other physical calico kitten characteristics are tied specifically to the X or Y gene depending on the specific circumstance. For a kitten to be born a calico it takes two X genes, one carrying an orange characteristic and one carrying the non-orange characteristic (usually black). And, if a cat has the XX combination of genes it needs to be calico, then it would be a female, hence, why there is the perception that a calico cat has to be a female."
ALTHOUGH RARE,
THERE ARE MALE CALICO CATS...
"...a genetic anomaly can occur where an offspring ends up with an extra sex chromosome producing the combination XXY. The XX of the XXY meets the requirement of the two X chromosomes needed to produce the calico cat characteristic's color and the Y of the XXY produces the male sex. However, male calico cats are usually sterile and do not reproduce."
Charles River Alleycats (CRA) is dedicated to promoting and reducing the number of homeless and feral cats in the greater Boston Area through non-lethal means...
Calico cats are not a breed; they are a very specific color characteristic. They are tri-colored with colors in distinct patches, not mixed as in a tortoiseshell.
to hear a lion roar!
