A Literary Cat for Every Day of the Year

by Tara Richardson

Genres: Anthologies; Animals

Synopsis

"If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much."
― Mark Twain

From Six Dinner Sid and T.S. Eliot's rebellious Rum Tum Tugger to the infuriating Cheshire Cat of Wonderland and Behemoth the Cat - the demonic shapeshifter of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, A Literary Cat for Every Day of the Year draws together quotes and passages from poems and stories in celebration of the most famous cats in literature.

A must-have for all cat-lovers and book lovers, this inspirational collection - with beautiful vintage line illustrations - is the perfect for every feline fan and a gift to treasure all year long.

Release date: August 14, 2025

Publisher: Octopus

Print pages: 256

Sample

It’s cold, it’s dreary, payday is approximately 5,000 years away and your bank balance is looking distinctly meagre – but there is good news. Cats exist. And the best way to get through these dark, chilly winter days is to be as much like a cat as possible. Find a warm, cosy spot, ideally near a radiator (or, if you’re very lucky, in a patch of wintry sun shining through the window). Curl up comfortably – and wait it out.

This month we’ll be meeting one of the earliest recorded literary cats (see 7 January), along with Spider and Silver, the feline companions of two of the most celebrated writers of the last century. We’ll also encounter no fewer than three witches’ cats.

If the winter weeks feel too long and dreary, you might find yourself identifying with Pete, the cat featured in Robert A Heinlein’s The Door into Summer (see 17 February and 8 June), who hates going outside when it’s cold.



We start the New Year with the birthday of Eiko Kadono, author of Kiki’s Delivery Service and creator of Jiji, the black cat who accompanies young witch Kiki as she embarks on a year of living alone as part of her witch’s training. Perhaps now best known for inspiring the Studio Ghibli movie of the same name, the book is a thoughtful and charming meditation on growing up and friendship. The relationship at the heart of the novel is between Kiki and her feline pal Jiji, who stands by his friend through trials and tribulations, and even saves the day by heroically posing as a stuffed toy when the original goes missing. A fine cat to begin the year.



Today is sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov’s birthday, and as such, it is often celebrated (unofficially) as Science Fiction Day. Asimov was a fan of felines, and famously switched his major from zoology to chemistry after being made to dissect a cat. He had a pet cat named Poky, and even wrote a short story about four-dimensional cats – called, ahem, ‘Time Pussy’.

Sure, the fourth dimension is time. These pussies was about a foot long and six inches wide and stretched somewhere into the middle o’ next week. That’s four dimensions, ain’t it? Why, if you petted their heads, they wouldn’t wag their tails till next day, mebbe. Some o’ the big ones wouldn’t wag till day after. Fact!



Today’s cat is Tibby, one of the title characters of Doris Lessing’s ‘An Old Woman and Her Cat’, a short story written for cold January days. It tells the tale of Hetty, an old woman who is ‘not respectable’. After her husband dies and her children drift out of contact, Hetty finds a kitten and takes him in. He soon grows into ‘a scarred warrior with fleas, a torn ear, and a ragged look to him’ – but he’s her constant companion, and the two adore each other. Tibby brings Hetty pigeons to cook when she’s short of money, and she rewards him with saucers of milk and unlimited love. The two end up living in a derelict building after Hetty rejects the offer of being rehomed somewhere that won’t accept Tibby too, and they huddle together in the ‘sleety January weather’. It’s a sad story about how easily vulnerable people can fall through the cracks and drift out of society, but it also highlights the unconditional love and loyalty between woman and cat.



Writer and Nobel Prize-winner Albert Camus died on this day in 1960. He loved cats, and is said to have had a pet cat named Cigarette. Here’s a feline-focused quote from his existentialist novel, A Happy Death.

The cats sleep for days at a time and make love from the first star until dawn. Their pleasures are fierce, and their sleep impenetrable. And they know that the body has a soul in which the soul has no part.



January is a time for self-reflection and new beginnings, which makes it a perfect moment to revisit Aesop’s Fables – specifically those featuring felines. ‘The Fox and the Cat’ is a particular favourite; it tells of a fox and a cat who begin comparing notes on their skills. The fox boasts that it has many tricks up its furry sleeve, while the cat says it has only one: climbing trees. They are disturbed by the sound of hunters approaching. The cat quickly puts its one skill into practice and climbs to safety. The fox, unable to choose which of its many tricks to go for, hesitates too long and is caught.

You can just picture the cat nonchalantly licking its paw from the safety of the high branches. Take a leaf out of the cat’s book: know yourself, your skills and your limits, and take decisive action when it matters.



I think all cats are wild cats. They just act tame if they think they’ll get a saucer of milk out of it.

– Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine, Last Chance to See



Continuing the theme of cats and milk (although it should be said that feeding them milk is typically not advised), here are a few lines from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. It seems that even in the Middle Ages, cats could be relied upon to do precisely as they wished, and nothing else.

Lets take a cat and foster him well with milk

And tender flesh, and make his couch of silk,

And lat him see a mouse go by the wall,

Anon he waiveth milk and flesh and all,

And every dainty that is in that house,

Such appetite hath he to eat a mouse.

– ‘The Manciple’s Tale’, lines 175–180



‘I love cats,’ said Dorothy. ‘They are so nice and selfish. Dogs are TOO good and unselfish. They make me feel uncomfortable. But cats are gloriously human.’

– L M Montgomery, Anne of the Island



Today marks the birthday of Barbara Sleigh, children’s writer and creator of the one and only Carbonel: The King of the Cats. Stolen from his cradle as a kitten by a witch, he meets the young Rosemary when she buys him, along with the witch’s broom, at a market.

In the first place you thought you had bought a common witch’s cat. Mind you, I’m not blaming you. A very natural mistake. You were not to know that I am a Royal Cat.



Cats, as a class, have never completely got over the snootiness caused by the fact that in Ancient Egypt they were worshipped as gods.

– P G Wodehouse, Mulliner Nights



Today marks the birthday of Robert C O’Brien, author of the thrilling children’s book Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. With a mouse (Mrs Frisby) and highly intelligent rats as the protagonists, it’s no surprise that the feline element in this book is considered a villain – but what a villain. Dragon the cat is owned by the farmer on whose land Mrs Frisby and her children live, and his reign of terror strikes fear into the hearts of all who encounter him.

Dragon lay stretched out in the sunlight, but he was not asleep. His head was up and his yellow eyes were open, staring in her direction. [Mrs Frisby] gasped in terror and whirled around the fence post to put it between her and him. Then, without pausing, she set out on a dash across the garden as fast as she could run, expecting at any instant to hear the cat’s scream and feel his great claws on her back.



Today is the birthday of one of the greatest cat fans in the literary world: Haruki Murakami, who even named a jazz club Peter Cat after one of his pets. So many of his works feature felines that he’s likely to make more than one appearance in this book, but today let’s turn our attention to The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, a meandering and beautiful tale that begins with the narrator, Toru Okada, setting out to find his missing cat.

I had always liked cats. And I liked this particular cat. But cats have their own way of living. They’re not stupid. If a cat stopped living where you happened to be, that meant it had decided to go somewhere else.



‘If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.’

– Mark Twain



Today’s cat is from the poem ‘She sights a Bird – she chuckles’ by American poet Emily Dickinson. As well as the feline featured below, Dickinson’s copious letters frequently feature the family cats, as you’ll see on later dates this year.

She sights a bird – she chuckles –

She flattens – then she crawls –

She runs without the look of feet –

Her eyes increase to Balls.



Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, writer and collector of Norwegian folklore, was born on this day in 1812. One of his stories is ‘The Cat on the Dovrefjell’, which features a traveller who has caught a white bear and is on his way to present it to the King of Denmark. One night he stops at a cottage and asks for shelter, but the owner tells him that it’s not safe as it’s Christmas Eve, the night the trolls come down from the mountain. The traveller begs, and the homeowner relents, leaving the house with his family and cat, and allowing the traveller and the bear to sleep there. The trolls come and mistake the bear for the cottager’s cat, and it chases them from the cottage. The next year, the trolls return, but as they approach they call out to the cottager to ask if he still has his cat. Confused, he says yes – and now she has seven kittens, each even bigger than she. The trolls flee and never return.



Today’s cat is Gobbolino from Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat by Ursula Moray Williams, which was first published in January 1942. Unlike the other witch’s cats, which have sleek black fur and green eyes, little Gobbolino has blue eyes and one white paw. As the kittens begin their training, Gobbolino struggles and is rejected by the witches. He sets out to fulfil his dream of becoming a kitchen cat instead, but his magic always seems to get in the way.

‘I’ll be a kitchen cat,’ said Gobbolino. ‘I’ll sit by the fire with my paws tucked under my chest and sing like the kettle on the hob.’



‘Cats.’

‘What about them?’

‘They’ve got a parasite. Toxoplas-something.’

Nora knew this. She had known this since she was a teen, doing her work experience at Bedford Animal Rescue Centre. ‘Toxoplasmosis.’

‘That’s it! Well, I was listening to this podcast, right… and there’s this theory that this international group of billionaires infected the cats with it so that they could take over the world by making humans dumber and dumber. I mean, think about it. There are cats everywhere.’

– Matt Haig, The Midnight Library



Today marks the birthday of A A Milne, who was born on this day in 1882. Although Milne’s best-known creation is of the ursine persuasion, one of Winnie-the-Pooh’s closest buddies is Tigger, a big(ish) cat with a big personality. Tigger makes his first appearance in 1928’s The House at Pooh Corner, and with his endless bouncing and high energy, he has become a firm favourite with fans of the Hundred-Acre Woods.



American novelist Patricia Highsmith was born on this day in 1921, and today’s cat is her beloved pet Spider, to whom she dedicated her 1964 book The Glass Cell. When Highsmit. . .