It’s the Easter holidays. I would usually introduce a holiday post with “Merci à Dieu” but, in this case, it’s also a couple of days before the start of Mercury Retrograde and I’m stuck at home for two weeks with Louis Catorze. So it’s more of a “Merde, merde and thrice merde” than a “Merci à Dieu”.
On the eve of my school holidays, we had a cat puke incident on the stairs. Can you guess whether it was all neatly confined to one step, or cascading down like Angel Falls? And was it on the wipeable wood or the textured, absorbent runner carpet? Go on, have a guess.
Luckily I have been able to escape into Orwellian dystopia to cheer myself up. Cat Daddy bought me a copy of Animal Farm ages ago, but I’ve only just got around to picking it up. If you don’t know the story, it’s about animals who rebel against the oppressive ways of their human captors, so it probably isn’t the best book to read if you’re trapped with a psychotic cat during Mercury Retrograde, but tant pis.
Interestingly, whilst all the animals in the story are hard grafters, the cat is utterly selfish and idle, ducking out when there’s work to be done, then reappearing when it’s time for dinner.
Imagine that.
Anyway, despite the too-close-to-home narrative, I’m finding the book utterly gripping. I was happily ensconced on the sofa, immersed in the story and undisturbed by evil Catorzian forces but, as soon as I reached the part about the Battle of the Cowshed – the first real confrontation between the animals and the humans – this happened:
The photo doesn’t do this justice, but the little sod attacked the book with some vigour. Was he reenacting the Battle of the Cowshed? Or was this very, very enthusiastic support for his fellow animals as they battered the hell out of us pathetic humans?
I searched for ages for a photo of George Orwell with a cat, and all I could find was this:
I suspect that the animal behind him is a dog, mainly because I can’t imagine Orwell – or anyone, come to think of it – taking a cat to the beach. But I like to pretend it’s a time-travelling Catorze, sitting like a devil on his shoulder and whispering the inspiration for Animal Farm.
Maybe The Uprising is closer than we thought …
louiscatorze.com 
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