Cat Classics on Film: That Darn Cat! (1965)

That Darn Cat, the 1965 version directed by Robert Stevenson, is a true Disney classic. The film was based on the book Undercover Cat, by Gordon Gordon and Mildred Gordon, who (along with Bill Walsh) also wrote the screenplay and were nominated for Edgar Allan Poe and Writer's Guild of America awards. It features plenty of antics from some colorful humans…and one super-cool cat.

The plot

A cat on the prowl never knows what he’s going to get caught up in, as DC (Darn Cat) finds out when he follows a fine-smelling shopping bag from the market to an apartment. The shopping bag, filled with salmon and steak, doesn’t travel by itself, obviously. It’s carried by a man who turns out to be a bank robber. Actually, he’s sort of a junior bank robber. He and his senior partner have recently scored a suitcase full of cash and taken a teller hostage.

Not that DC is interested in any of this. Humans are always doing some weird thing, and it’s often best to just not pay much attention. DC very sensibly focuses on the food, which puts him alone in the kitchen with the teller, Margaret (played by Grayson Hall), when she is forced to cook for the crooks. Margaret is pretty smart, and she takes the opportunity to replace the cat’s collar with her wristwatch. She’s even able to scratch “HEL” on the watch’s back before she’s interrupted.

When DC goes home after his night’s adventures, it takes some little while before any of the humans in his house even notice the watch. Finally, Patti Randall (Hayley Mills) sees it and the inscription and soon deduces that DC has brought a message from the kidnap victim: HELP. But will anyone believe it?

Well, turns out the FBI, and specifically agent Zeke Kelso (Dean Jones), is willing to take DC on as an “informant.” All they have to do is follow the cat on his nightly rounds, and he’ll lead them to the kidnappers’ hideout.

Hilarity ensues.

Let’s talk about that darn cat

Unless we just missed it (and we were watching very carefully), the cat actor in this film is uncredited. Animal trainer William R. Koehler is credited, but Syn the Siamese cat is not. And let’s face it, while the trainer was certainly important in the film’s creation, Syn (who had earlier appeared in The Incredible Journey) did a lot of the work—the running and jumping, the dragging of the duck. (Did we mention that DC steals a duck? We particularly enjoyed that part.) Sure, he had cat body doubles for some parts, but still, it’s Syn who has all the charisma and poise on screen.  It’s Syn who has the beautiful blue eyes set in that dark face, making him look all handsome and mysterious.

You humans have your Clark Gables, your Cary Grants, your George Clooneys. We cats have Syn. Meee-ow.

Our verdict

That Darn Cat is two hours of laugh-out-loud fun. Seeing a bunch of FBI agents try to tail a cat on the prowl? Funny! The antics of a nosy neighbor (Elsa Lanchester) and her long-suffering husband (William Demarest)? Also funny! An FBI agent following a cat through a drive-in theater while a surfing movie is in progress? Yes, funny! We also admire Patti’s spunk and her willingness to do the right thing no matter what.

Make some popcorn and curl up with your cat for this Disney classic!

A note on the "Paws Up" system: Miss C gives either one or two paws up. One paw is for a good movie; two paws is for a great movie. She never gives three or four paws because that would require her to lie on her back...and Miss C does not do that!

The link below is an Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the movie through this link, old SoLT and I could get some coin for our kibble account. Thank you!

Cat of the Week: Panda in Baltimore

June is Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month. At this time of year, “kitten season,” the young kittens get a lot of attention. But there are lots of older cats in shelters just waiting to be welcomed into a loving forever home. That’s why each week in this space, we feature a senior cat (7 years +) in need of adoption or sponsorship. Mature cats make great companions, and unlike kittens, they (probably) won’t climb the curtains! Adopt a senior cat, and help him or her enjoy the best years of their life!

Today we’re introducing Panda, a handsome black-and-white male who is 7 and a half years old and is front declawed. Panda is a little shy at first and isn’t a fan of new things, but once he gets comfortable with someone, he will soak up the love and affection. He enjoys getting a lot of attention! He’s also a fan of toys, especially the little red dot, catnip mice, and balls with bells inside. In quieter moments, Panda enjoys sitting in windows to get some sunshine. If you could provide a nice, soft blankie, he would much appreciate it.

Panda is currently at the Baltimore Humane Society. Learn more about him here.

Can’t adopt? You can still help! Check out Sammy’s Cat Necessities Fund, which provides money for everyday and medical needs of cats at the Baltimore Humane Society. You can also make a general donation or sponsor a particular animal on this page. Every little bit helps!

Book Review: Real Hamsters Don’t Bite

What could cause a bunch of hamsters to start attacking cats? You can find out in the new book Real Hamsters Don’t Bite, by Alexis Cleoford.

In this book for readers ages 7–15, you will meet Mighty the Cat and his brother (or co-cat), Brennon. Life is almost perfect for Mighty, except when he feels stuck, like when he’s in the cat dungeon (a.k.a. the pet hotel). Even after he and Brennon get back home, all Mighty wants is to find a place where cats are treated like kings. I think we all want that, don’t we? So when he sees a commercial for something called Cat Land, he decides to go there to get away from it all for a while. Mighty and Brennon take off, hopping a random truck that they hope will take them to Cat Land (not the best way to travel, by the way!).

Meanwhile, there is something weird going on with the local hamsters. They’ve started attacking cats, for reasons unknown. There’s also yellow goo falling out of the sky. What’s up with all this? Mighty and Brennon will discover the truth, eventually, and along the way they’ll have quite a few adventures. They’ll also learn the value of being yourself and persisting in pursuing your goals.

Real Hamsters Don’t Bite is a cute book that has cat facts sprinkled throughout, which is a nice touch. We thought that the story could perhaps be better organized (we did “lose the plot” once or twice), and the ending felt a little incomplete. Nevertheless, we had a fun time with this book. What young person (or adult for that matter) hasn’t felt “stuck” at some time and wanted to go to their own version of Cat Land, only to find that this magical place isn’t what they expected?

A fun book!

A note on the "Paws Up" system: Miss C gives either one or two paws up. One paw is for a good read; two paws is for a great read. She never gives three or four paws because that would require her to lie on her back...and Miss C does not do that!

We received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. We wouldn’t tell you it was good unless we really liked it!

The link below is an Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the book through this link, old SoLT and I could get some coin for our kibble account. Thank you!

Sunday Selfie: Webster Contemplates

We're joining the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by The Cat on My Head, with this picture of Real Cat Webster. He was sitting on the second draft of old SoLT's new book (The Mythmakers, coming out this fall), and we thought he looked like he was contemplating its contents.

Caturday Art: Cats Outlined in Light

Today we join Athena's Caturday Art blog hop with this picture of the Real Cats:

Don't even think of asking old SoLT how this happened; she could not re-create it if her life depended on it! This was a case of taking a bad photo and throwing everything including the kitchen sink at it. There was Photoshop, there was PicMonkey, and then Photoshop again. Here's the original photo:

Words with Webster (Purr), Plus Friendly Fill-Ins

We have two fun features for you this Friday. First up is Words with Webster, in which he tells us things we never knew about a very common word. This is followed by Friendly Fill-Ins.

Words with Webster

Hi, everyone! I’m Real Cat Webster, here to welcome you to Words with Me. Today’s word is “purr.” You might think that this is a really obvious cat word, and everyone already knows all about it. But do they really? Let’s find out!

A purr, according to my favorite dictionary (Merriam-Webster’s), is “a low vibratory murmur of a cat that appears to indicate contentment or pleasure and is believed to result from the streaming of air over the false vocal cords.” Well, okay, but we all already knew that, pretty much. So I checked with the Oxford English Dictionary and found out that the word purr came to be used for that rumbly sound cats make because, well, that’s sort of what it sounds like. It doesn’t come from Latin or Greek or anything (but we wonder what Greeks and Romans called that sound, if they called it anything; scholars, please weigh in). 

“Purr,” in the sense of that rumbly sound, was first used in print way back in the 1600s by none other than William Shakespeare (in All’s Well That Ends Well, published in 1623 but written earlier):

Heere is a purre of Fortunes sir, or of Fortunes Cat.

“Purr” also shows up in Don Quixote (Cervantes, 1620):

But the Cat, careless of these threats, purred, and held fast.

And by the way, “purr” was used even earlier (14th century) to mean a fire poker; a thrust, stab, or kick; or a state of agitation. None of this had anything to do with cats though (we hope). Later, beginning in the 16th century, “purr” also came to refer to a kind of small pig that used to live feral on the Isle of Man. This also has nothing to do with cats. Other meanings for “purr” that you might not know about are an edible mollusk; to stuff or fill something; and a call used to attract pigs or turkeys.

You can find out a lot about purring (the cat kind) from this BrainStuff video:

Friendly Fill-Ins

And now it’s time for Friendly Fill-Ins, from 15andmeowing and McGuffy’s Reader. They are a fun way to learn a little bit about the authors of the blogs you read. The first two questions, answered by Real Cat Paisley this week, are from Ellen of 15andmeowing, and the next two, answered by old SoLT, are from Annie of McGuffy’s Reader.

Real Cat Paisley’s answers:

1. A law I would like to see passed is an anti-dog ordinance.

2. My favorite card game is not poker, because I saw in a painting once that dogs play poker.

Old SoLT’s answers:

3. With Summer unofficially here, life continues as normal, only a little hotter.

4. A favourite Summer memory is dividing and repotting hostas for hours on end. The landscaper I worked for grew a lot of hostas, and I always loved working with them.

Cat Travel: American Museum of the House Cat

If you’re ever in the vicinity of Sylva, North Carolina (near Asheville in the southwestern part of the state), there is a brand-new museum that is worth stopping at. It’s called the American Museum of the House Cat, and in it you will find over 5,000 items that either depict cats or have something to do with cats. One of the most remarkable things about this museum is that its objects come from a collection amassed over more than three decades by one man, Harold “Catman” Sims. We had a chance to chat with Harold the other day, and we were eager to learn of the origins of his museum.

The exterior of the American Museum of the House Cat.
The museum is at the Old School Antiques Mall
in Sylva, North Carolina.
All photos courtesy of Harold "Catman" Sims.

“One cat led to another…”

It’s not surprising that the Catman has always liked cats. It’s also not surprising that this interest in cats turned into a cat-collecting bug, only instead of actual cats, Harold collected cat objects. His first cat find was over 30 years ago, when he was antiquing in Florida and came across a picture of a cat on a train. The cat turned out to be Chessie, mascot of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Then, as many cat people will understand so well, “one cat led to another,” and soon he had a growing collection of cat objects. When eBay came along, the pace of collecting picked up even more.

Creation of a no-kill shelter

One case holds beer steins and other glassware,
all with cats on them.

When he retired, Harold wanted to support a cat shelter, so he got involved with one that was opening in North Carolina, where he had moved after a long career in education in Florida. But he was horrified to learn that this was a “kill” shelter, where healthy animals could be destroyed when there wasn’t enough room for them. That wasn’t what he wanted at all, so he built his own cages and started rescuing cats. When he came into an inheritance that could either fund a cruise around the world or go toward building a cat shelter… well, you can guess what the Catman did. With some help, he spent about two years building a 1,000-square-foot “open” shelter in which cats can move around and be cats instead of being confined to cages. Currently, the Catman2 Shelter houses 65 cats and has a low-cost/no-cost spay & neuter program.

The object of the Cat Knock Down carnival game was
to throw balls and knock down the three stuffed cats.

Some of the art Harold had collected over the years was hung on the shelter’s walls, but he still had a lot of objects that weren’t being seen. He decided to put his collection to good use by starting a museum that would support the shelter. After he found space in an antique mall, he started getting things ready in fall 2016. The American Museum of the House Cat opened April 1, 2017. Harold reports that the museum drew over 2,000 visitors in May 2017, and he said there was a group of about 20 people touring the displays while we were talking.

Cat collectibles of every description

In the museum’s 1,000 square feet, visitors can expect to see all kinds of cat objects, from pictures to art glass, a Bad Cats pinball machine and other arcade games, and an impressive group of carousel cats (some from Europe). There is a group of beer steins with cats on them, automaton cats, clocks… To us, this museum offers proof that people will put cats on anything. There is even one actual feline… a petrified cat from the chimney of a medieval English house (although no one is sure how old the cat actually is), and this cat will soon be joined by a recently purchased a cat mummy that Harold expects to arrive next week.

If you want to see any sort of cat object, the American Museum of the House Cat is the place to be! 

Inside, the museum has case after case filled with cat-related art, advertising pieces,
and more. Some of the carousel cats can be seen on the right.

Details

A trio of figurines from the
American Museum
of the House Cat.

The American Museum of the House Cat is located at the Old School Antique Mall, 4704 Highway 441 South, Sylva, NC 28779.

Hours are as follows:

• Tuesday–Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

A $5 donation is suggested for admittance. Profits support the Catman2 Shelter.

You can also follow the museum on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Note that the museum will close for the winter (January–March) because it’s just too darn cold!

If you can't get there in person just yet, this video from The Carpetbagger will give you an idea of what you're missing:

Now, don't you feel like planning a trip to North Carolina?

This post is part of our occasional Cat Travel series, which highlights fun cat-related travel destinations. Click here for more cat-related travel posts.

Do you know of a cat-related place that's worth a visit? Let us know!