Cats in the Garden by Mao Yi
One thing that interests me is the history of pets through the centuries. Everyone knows the Ancient Egyptians revered cats, but not much is heard of how cats were regarded in other countries. I was pleased to find this picture (on Wikipedia.com) of cats playing in a garden in 12th century China. This is such a sweet picture – it must have been made by an artist who truly enjoyed cats.
Cats and Kittens in a Garden
Here is what Wikipedia has to say: “Cats that were favored pets during the Chinese Song Dynasty were long-haired cats for catching rats and cats with yellow-and-white fur called ‘lion-cats’, who were valued simply as cute pets. Cats could be pampered with items bought from the market such as ‘cat-nests’, and were often fed fish that were advertised in the market specifically for cats.”
Cats don’t seem to enjoy the same fond regard in China today. All you have to do is Google “cats in China” to find dozens of horror stories of the mistreatment of cats. The long-haired variety are kept as pets so I suppose short-hairs are just out of luck.
This picture is from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Mao_I_001.jpg
