Cats

No matter how much cats fight,
there always seems to be plenty of kittens.
-- Abraham Lincoln

Years after I graduated from university, one of my first cousins and his wife looked me up while stopping in Halifax, We had not seen each other since my early teen years. They remembered me as a little girl, always with cats.

I'm still, always with a cat in my home.

[Emigrant Ship crossing the seas]

Cats with extra toes on their paws have always been favourites of mine. They are said to have come to New York on ships, who kept cats on board to control the rats and mice. Several Highlanders who had emigrated to the Carolinas before the American Revolution, sought new homes in Canada at the end of the war. Many brought their pets with them, including multi-toed cats.

Gaelic includes separate words for a male and a female multi-toed cat. This makes me wonder if they originated, or were at one time, residents of the Gaelic areas of Scotland. Can anyone tell me of their heritage?

Outstanding Cats I have known

[MacKay Hall] {*}

[Heritage Hall] {*}