Wednesday 17 December 2014

"Touch not the cat bot a glove"

I took this picture in Derbyshire, in a wild animals sanctuary, mainly owls and otters, but also, as you can see, wildcats. The title I used for this post is the motto of the Clan Macpherson of Scotland. It truly means "Do not touch a cat without a glove". Here is what Wikipedia says: "The 'glove' of a wildcat is the pad. If the cat is 'ungloved', its claws are unsheathed. The motto serves as a warning that one should beware when the wildcat's claws are 'without a glove'. It is a reference to the historically violent nature of the clan and serves as a metaphorical warning to other clans that they should think twice before interfering with Macpherson business." So it was meant as a warning.

I feel strongly about this motto for many reasons, for one because it is sort of mine. I explain: on my mother's side, I belong to the Archibald family, which apparently, from the research I did on Google (for what it's worth) belongs to the Clan Macpherson. Maybe it is far fetched, but I find it very fitting for me, as I love cats of all sorts. Of course, my society with cats is less of the feral and more of the domestic type, but all the same, there is something feral and untamed about the whole species. All cats are, in a sense and at the core, wild. So this motto fits my fellow felines than my fellow primates.

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