Glasgow’s Finest Cat Sleuth Has a Secret

Miss Cuddlywumps reviews Leger’s Secret by Lacey Dearie

There are cool cats and there are cool cats, but there are few cats as cool as Leger. First of all, he is a black cat, which is automatically cool. Second, he is “Glasgow’s finest cat sleuth,” which is uber-cool. Third, he has a pet mouse named Nigel. (Honestly, I am not sure if that third point is cool or not, but it is unique.)

In Leger’s Secret, this particular cool cat finds himself in a tricky situation. It all starts with Lily, a homeless calico Leger met in a previous adventure. Leger, upstanding feline that he is, has taken it upon himself to find a home for Lily, and the home he decides on is with one Malky Maguire. Maguire has a questionable past, but he does love cats, so this seems a fine option. A little catnip helps Lily settle in (and I am using “settle in” loosely; she actually ends up hanging happily from a curtain rail, but we’ve all been there, haven’t we?).

Unfortunately, Maguire has a problem. Someone has been vandalizing his property, only he doesn’t know who is doing it or why. Things escalate when the vandal strikes again, a cat is hurt, and Lily is nowhere to be found. Now Leger has a problem.

He naturally feels obligated to identify the vandal and locate Lily, for whom he feels responsible. But Leger’s red-haired girlfriend, Ginger, is suspicious of his habit of hanging around other females and has given him an ultimatum: If he wants to be with her, he has to lay off the investigations for a while. So Leger’s secret is that he is conducting an important investigation behind Ginger’s back.

I will not reveal any more of the story, except to tell you that it also involves a seagull named Joe. The rest you will have to read for yourself, and I recommend that you do.

This is the first story that we have read in the Leger series (it is book #9), and now we wonder why we waited so long to get into it. The writing is good and we admire the way the plot is resolved. She of Little Talent laughed out loud at the end, when Leger gets an unfortunate surprise. Also, it is hard not to love Leger. Quite an admirable cat, is Leger. He truly is a cat with character, and one worth reading about.

I give Leger's Secret an enthusiastic

 

Britain’s Earliest Domestic Cats Lived in the Iron Age—We Think

Miss Cuddlywumps considers the archaeological evidence for Britain’s first domestic cats

Hello, Britain! When did the first domestic cat

arrive in Britain? Earlier than you might think.

Photo © Andreykuzmin | Dreamstime.com.

 “The Romans introduced domestic cats to Britain by AD 300.” The preceding sentence, versions of which have been found on the internet, has been brought to you by the Department of Not-Quite-Right Information. Yes, it is true that the Romans invaded Britain and more than likely brought cats with them. However, it is also true that Britain already had domestic cats and had had them for at least a couple of centuries before the first Romans arrived with Caesar in 55 BC. 

The earliest known cats in Britain

Evidence of early domestic cats in Britain comes from an Iron Age (in Britain, about 800 BC–AD 43) settlement called Gussage All Saints, near Dorset in southern England. Excavations in this settlement revealed the skeletons of several cats, including five kittens. They have been dated to around 250 BC. (Interestingly, Britain’s earliest known house mouse was discovered at the same site.) These cats are identified as domestic for two reasons:

1. the skeletons were articulated, and
2. the cats were breeding in a human settlement.

The first point is important because it tells us the cats had not been butchered. Yes, there were wildcats in Britain before domestic cats arrived on the scene, but those wildcats would not willingly set paw in a human settlement. The only reason a wildcat would be in such a place would be if it had been caught to be used as food; in that case, the skeletons would be disarticulated and the bones would show butcher marks.

The second point is important because a European wildcat would not simply settle down and raise a family near humans. And yet, here these cats were, with five little kittens. (Note: we do not know if any of the cats found were the parents of the kittens.)

So where did these cats come from?

If the Romans did not deliver Britain’s first domestic cats, who did? Well, no one knows for sure. Genetic studies have revealed a sort of population corridor stretching from the Greek colony of Masilia (founded in about 600 BC; today it’s called Marseilles, France) up the Rhone and Seine rivers and across the English Channel to southern England. Cats may have been transported and traded along this route, beginning with those Greeks in Masilia. Or they may have arrived by sea, brought by Phoenicians visiting Britain in search of tin (Phoenicians were active traders around the Mediterranean world from around 1500 BC to 322 BC).

The evidence uncovered so far doesn’t tell us exactly how cats got to Britain or which humans they came with. In any case, domestic cats were certainly living in Britain, and probably catching house mice there, long before the Romans arrived.

Sources

Davis, Simon J.M. The Archaeology of Animals. Yale University Press, 1987 (p. 182).

Engels, Donald. Classical Cats. Routledge, 1999 (pp. 80–82).

Wastlhuber, Joan. “History of Domestic Cats and Cat Breeds.” In Feline Husbandry, edited by NC Pedersen, pp. 1–59. American Veterinary Publications, 1991 (p. 3).