Of cats and men Profiles of history's great cat-loving artists, writers, thinkers, and statesmen

WHAT IS A CAT MAN? Men are often portrayed in the company of dogs. They hunt together, run happily side by side, and ride shoulder to shoulder in mud-splattered pickups--the perfect image of masculine bliss. The dog is, after all, man's best friend. Some men, that is.  For centuries, legions of forward-thinking men--artists, writers, scientists, and philosophers--have shared their libraries and studios with a purring feline or two. In recent years, a new population of proud, cat-loving men has come out of the proverbial "cat closet," embracing the purr, mew, and squint of feline companionship.  Women have, for centuries, been chided and maligned for having a cat, let alone several. This "crazy cat lady" stereotype is deeply unfair. Like Prometheus to fire, generations of enlightened fellows have gravitated to the feline species. We stand with our cat-loving sisters as crazy cat men, proudly wearing our scarlet letters in solidarity.  Since man first discovered a fallen whisker in the forests of Eden, he has had a twilight bond with cats. We need only imagine the temples of ancient Egypt, where the priests prayed to statues of Bastet, cat goddess of the Egyptian people and protectress against disease and evil spirits. When a cat died, the Egyptians would shave their eyebrows in mourning--theirs was a truly cat-crazy culture. In fact, when a temple of Bastet was excavated in the late nineteenth century, archaeologists uncovered more than three hundred thousand cat mummies. Who knew that a catnap could last over two millennia? Excerpted from Of Cats and Men: Profiles of History's Great Cat-Loving Artists, Writers, Thinkers, and Statesmen by Sam Kalda All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.