Claude Monet’s terra cotta cat comes home

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What happened to Claude Monet’s cat?

Artists and cats are a perfect combination. So much so, Impressionist painter Claude Monet was once given a porcelain cat, which was made in Japan, as a gift. Then it disappeared for several decades. After a recent discovery, the glazed cat makes headlines and a tidy profit from Christie’s recent auction in Hong Kong.

Claude Monet’s terra cotta cat comes home

Martin Baile, from Art Newspaper, says the cat is back at Monet’s house in Giverny, northern France, due to an unknown family member

Self portrait with Beret, 1886

 

 

 

Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was born in Paris. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (1872). One of his most famous paintings is  Water LIllies, (194-1926) which hangs at The Musuem of Modern Art in New York City.

Water Lillies
Painted 1914-1926 by Monet

 

According to Smithsonian magazineThe American socialite Pauline Howard-Johnson visited Monet’s house in 1924. She remembers seeing the cat on a couch in the bright yellow dining room

“On a pillow, a white cat—sort of unpolished terracotta—sleeping snugly,” she said.

Monet’s cat back in his house in Giverny. Photo: Martin Bailey

 

Later, she saw it in the home of Michel, Monet’s second son, who was killed in a car crash in 1966. That’s when the glazed biscuit cat disappeared.

In 2011, Adrien Meyer, co-chair of the Impressionist and modern art at Christie’s, was invited to a private home. During his visit he noticed unframed Monet paintings stored under beds, Monet’s eyeglasses and other items in cardboard boxes, and the terra-cotta cat he said “was very casually sitting on the piano.”
Michel was married but didn’t have children. He left his vast collection of family artifacts and paintings to France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts and its Marmottan Monet Museum, although some paintings and items from his collection appeared to be missing reported Mark Brown at The Guardian. Turns out Michel had an illegitimate daughter that no one, including Monet experts, knew about. Her name was Rolande Verneiges (born 1914-2008). She inherited the missing portion of Michel’s collection.

Sometime after Ms. Verneiges death, her heirs contacted Mr. Meyer because they decided to auction the paintings and artifacts.

The cat was estimated to sell for about $3000-$4000. It went for $67,0000, purchased by the Japanese art and coin dealer Hideyuki Wada. He donated it to the Fondation Claude Monet, which runs Monet’s house in Giverny in northern France.
The cat is now back in Monet’s dining room, napping comfortably on a cushion.

Monet’s terra-cotta catHanging  above the cat is a facsimile of one of the Japanese prints acquired by Monet, Utagawa Hiroshige’s dramatic depiction of a swooping eagle.

 

Thinking about adopting a cat for the first time

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Tips For Expanding Your Family With Your First cat

article submitted to mykittycare.com by Jessica Brody, from ourbestfriendsrescue.org

Thinking about adopting a cat for the first time – Just as planning for a baby takes plenty of careful consideration and planning, so too does bringing home your first cat. All too often new parents haven’t given due consideration to all of the traits and needs of their new companions, which results in far too many abandoned animals. Just as you would plan for precisely the right time, precisely the right care items, precisely the right home for your new baby, the same consideration should be given to a new cat.

courtesy pixabay.com

 

Let’s look at some questions you should be asking yourself.

  • Is now the best time?

Just as you carefully consider a good time to bring a child into your life, you should consider if now is a good time for a cat? For example, are you in good health and able to take care of a catt? Are your children young and requiring a good deal of attention that would detract from being a good cat parent? Do you have the finances should a medical emergency arise?

  • Why are you considering a cat?

Perhaps you’ve elected to have a cat before having a child. And in this case, you would want to make sure to select a cat was more affectionate. Or, perhaps you’re looking for cat that would be beneficial in your addiction recovery. Research indicates that interactions  with a cat can have the following benefits: insight into thoughts, emotions and behavioral patterns; identifying unhealthy coping mechanisms; and encouragement toward new behavioral modifications.

  • What cat will best suit me?

Not everyone has the patience or the time to take care of a new kitten, for example. And similar to a baby, there’s other planning needed as well, such as modifying your home for their safety, training classes, hiring pet sitters, and so on. Likewise, every family may be looking for more human/pet interaction than say a turtle or bird provides. Consider taking a fun, online quiz to point you in the right direction.

  • Will the cat I’m considering fit into my lifestyle?

If you’re single and at work a lot, you don’t want a cat that may be sad when home alone.  Cats are naturally night animals; they sleep all day and wake by night. Will this be OK with you? Maybe you’re an older person or a more sedentary type, so this might mean an older calmer cat is a better choice than a younger cat.

  • Do I have the right home for a cat?

If you’re living in a 300-square-foot apartment, you probably ought to say no to certain cat breeds, like Bengels, because they are large cats. Cats do need excercis. Also, curious cats will need home modifications.

Once you’ve answered all of these questions and selected a cat, make sure to take time to acclimate your new cat to your home. Rescue animals, in particular, will need special care and attention when adjusting. For example, cats are territorial animals that will require items including a pet carrier or a box with bedding. You’ll also need to provide them with a scratching post to avoid damage to your home and a perch place for them to sit high and look down safely.

courtesy pixabay.com

You’ve made the choice and helped them to acclimate, so now it’s time to bond. Spend plenty of time with your new cat, train them, groom them and play with them. Your cat is your family, and just like family, it’s time to make memories that will last a lifetime.

is it good to be a crazy cat lady?

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Who asks –  is it good to be a crazy cat lady?

Must be someone who doesn’t get cat lovers. Guess how My Kitty Care answers “is it good to be a crazy cat lady?”

We say of course!  But perhaps I’m a little biased. OK, I’m very biased.

is it good being a crazy cat lady?

photo by shari smith dunaif ©2015

 

How did the concept of a cat lady being crazy happen?
Maybe it began centuries ago when people believed in witches. Witches were crazed and associated with black cats, hence crazy cat ladies.

Another theory is based on cat poo with parasites called toxoplasmosis. Cats can get it by eating infected rodents; humans can contract it by handling contaminated kitty litter. One of the symptoms could be altered mental function.

In 2003, E. Fuller Torrey of the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland his colleagues noted a link between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia – specifically, that women with high levels of the parasite were more likely to give birth to schizophrenics-to-be.

from scientificamerican.com July, 2012

More recently, UK researchers cambridge.org dispute the link between toxoplasmosis and crazy cat lady image in a July 2017 article titled “Curiosity killed the cat: no evidence of an association between cat ownership and psychotic symptoms at ages 13 and 18 years in a UK general population cohort.” It basically concludes:

“While pregnant women should continue to avoid handling soiled cat litter, given possible T. gondii exposure, our study strongly indicates that cat ownership in pregnancy or early childhood does not confer an increased risk of later adolescent PEs [psychotic experiences]

Now that we’ve dispelled the issue of our mental health, I’ill accept the `crazy cat lady‘ term because I happily confess: I’m CRAZY about cats!

So now the question remains: is it good to be a crazy cat lady?

The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Neurology vol.2 no.1 published research that established a benefit between cat ownership and a decreased risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke. In a 2009 article,

Conclusions: A decreased risk for death due to MI and all cardiovascular diseases (including stroke) was observed among persons with cats. Acquisition of cats as domestic pets may represent a novel strategy for reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases in high-risk individuals

 

Why it’s good to be a crazy cat lady

  • The sound of your purring cat is relaxing. Purring calms nerves and effectively lowers blood pressure.
  • Apparently, petting your cat releases oxytocin, a bonding hormone, which makes people feel less stressed, says Melanie Greenberg, Ph.D., licensed clinical psychologist and author of “The Stress-Proof Brain.”
  • Loneliness, or feeling isolated is a factor in our health. Various studies recognize stress, loneliness and alienation as contributors to illness. Want to feel better? Having a pet, we’re partial to cats, is a fabulous way to bring love and companionship into your home,

Crazy cat ladies, crazy cat men too, may not be so crazy – cats bring love and joy, which contributes to our well-being.

is it good to be a crazy cat lady? A resounding YES!

 

Do cats spread disease?

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We hear about cats being blamed for spreading disease

All creatures, including humans, carry germs, bacteria, that sort of thing, and so do cats. But do cats spread disease? Well, sort of but not really. There is something called toxoplasmosis which can be present in cat poo. Toxoplasmosis is caused by a microscopic parasite called Toxoplasma Gondii. Cats who hunt and have eaten contaminated rodents, birds, even small animals could become infected.

do cats spread disease?

outdoor cat
photo by shari smith dunaif © 2016

Or, if a cat has contact with another cat’s infected poo, that cat may become contaminated. That’s how a human is infected by a cat with toxoplasmosis, it’s from cat poo.

However, according to cdc.gov, humans are more likely to contract toxoplasmosis by:

  • Eating raw or undercooked meat from animals (especially pigs, lamb, or wild game) that have been infected with Toxoplasma.
  • Directly from a pregnant woman to her fetus when the mother becomes infected with Toxoplasma just before or during pregnancy.
  • Eating food, drinking water, or accidentally swallowing soil that has been contaminated with infected cat feces.

So if your cat is an outdoor hunter, just avoid picking up cat poo with your bare hands. (We hope you use a scooper, right?) If you do handle outdoor hunting cat poo, wash your hands. Otherwise, don’t blame cats!Do cats spread disease?

Do cats spread disease?

a final confirmation about transmition of toxoplasmosis:

Not many of us (perhaps toddlers aside…) will intentionally consume cat faeces, but we will sometimes come inside after gardening and grab a quick sandwich without remembering to wash our hands. This is not a problem with the cat itself, rather our own personal hygiene. It is extremely unlikely that you would pick up toxoplasmosis by petting your cat or being scratched or bitten by your cat, because the organism is not spread by the fur or saliva. You CAN, however, pick up toxoplasmosis by eating undercooked infected meat, particularly lamb and pork. Again, this is not your cat’s fault, rather our own lack of taste or culinary skills, and is by far the most common way of picking up the disease in developed countries.

vethelpdirect.com

So, do cats spread disease? Not really, unless you encounter a specific cat who is an outdoor hunter AND ate contaminated prey AND you handled the cat’s infected poo with your bare hands. And then didn’t wash your hands.

 

Henri Matisse and cats

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Henri Matisse and cats

Henri Matisse (1869-1954, French) is one of my most favorite artists. So obliviously I was curious about Henri Matisse and cats – did he like them? Did he love them? Did he have cats?

Matisse lovedcats

Matisse with his cat Minouche, Nice 1940’s

 

Matisse did indeed have cats. In fact, he was especially fond of his two cats Minouche and Coussi, and a black cat named la Puce, translated means the flea.

Matisse loved cats

girl with a black cat 1910 henri matisse was his daughter Marguerite

 

 

 

 

 

OK, so did he ever paint them?
This painting is called Girl with a Black Cat,  it was painted in 1910. The girl is Matisse’s daughter, Marguerite.

 

Matisse loved cats

Le chat aux poissons rouges (the cat with red fish) 1914, Henri Matisse

Matisse loved cats

Blue Cat, 1940’s. by Henri Matisse

 

 

 

The fact that Henri Matisse loved cats makes me love him even more. He was someone who had a unique eye, a creative imagination and a nature sensitive enough to appreciate cats.
Henri Matisse loved cats.