Rat-a-Tat
February 28, 1990 - March 13, 2000
In March, 2000, one of my best friends passed away. Rat-a-Tat was my very special Turkish Van kitty, a constant companion and a true friend. Rat-a-Tat would always be with me when I studied or read, and would spend the night at the foot of my bed, asleep on her favourite New Zealand sheepskin.
Always ready for a game, Ratty would play "Hide and Seek," wherein I would hide around the corner of the house in the back yard, just showing my hand: Rat-a-Tat would stealthily sneak up on me (just out of sight), and leap toward my hand, tap it lightly with her paw, and then race away at great speed in the opposite direction, entreating me to run after her, as if to say: "Catch me if you can!"
A roll in the garden and the munching of some intoxicating catnip, followed by the hunting of bugs would round out a fine summer's afternoon for Ratty.
Not a day goes by that I do not think of my little friend, Rat-a-Tat
. She is gone from my life, but not my memory -- In this lies her immortality.
Illustration facing verse 7 in Lili Schofield.
Tom Catapus and Potipher: A Tale of Ancient Egypt
.From the Comegys Family Library,
Special Collections Branch,
St Jerome and His Lion
St. Jerome in his study kept a great big cat,
It's always in his pictures, with its feet upon the mat.
Did he give it milk to drink, in a little dish?
When it came to Fridays, did he give it fish?
If I lost my little cat, I'd be sad without it;
I should ask St. Jeremy what to do about it;
I should ask St. Jeremy, just because of that,
For he's the only saint I know who kept a pussy cat.
--Anonymous
Rat-a-Tat, Filed Alongside Russian Language Dictionaries
"I am the cat that walks by himself
And all places are alike to me."
--Rudyard Kipling
Rat-a-Tat Vogue Shot
Rat-a-Tat Supervising Garden Activities
Four Irish scholars went
to sea for the Love of God,
and took nothing with them,
only the youngest said,
"I think I will take
the little cat."
--Translated from Medieval Latin by Helen Waddell
The staff at the Midtown Animal Clinic in Davis, California cared for Ratty, and became fast friends. They even dedicated a page on their Website to the memory of Rat-a-Tat.
Some Turkish Van Websites
The Turkish Van Site -- Pairodocs Turkish Vans
hantoms Turkish Van Cats
nity Turkish Van Cattery