Thursday, January 14, 2010

Waiting for D’Artagnan!



Mon cher George,

My name is Porthos! Of course …I’m one of the musketeers!

Cardinal Richelieu (my human) managed to get all of us together for a nice pre-Christmas dinner at his chalet. We all rushed “inside” to honor his invitation.

Athos, Aramis, Milady (actually there are two of them in the house), myself; we all are here ready to eat the famous (mouse) foie gras!

The only one missing from this reunion is D’Artagnan; he’s somewhere outside!

Guess (even after so many years)……he’s still fooling around! I thought he got “fixed” as we all had, but obvious our Cardinal missed this one!

Anyway, while waiting for D’Artagnan…a thought came to my mind.

We always have been four! The four musketeers!

Then …why Alexandre Dumas wrote about “The Three Musketeers”?

Couldn’t he count up to four? George, mon ami, what do you think?

A bientot,

Porthos


Dear Porthos,

I am not often lost for a response. But I am ashamed to say that I am now. I have not read the Three Musketeers. My secretary, who as an Eng Lit graduate ought to know, confesses that she hasn't either. She's seen some films about them and tells me they were dashing gentleman, swashbuckling with swords and a lot of expensive lace, long curls (probably from a wig) and generally very attractive. She seems to remember that one of them was fat but, if your delightful photo is anything to go by, not Porthos.

So why did Dumas write about four musketeers and then title the book The Three Musketeers. Perhaps he could not count? It's a possibility but most animals (even humans) can "count" up to four or five. So this seems unlikely. Besides, whatever his maths abilities, he had the right idea about cats. It was Dumas who said: "The cat, an aristocrat, merits our esteem, while the dog is only a scurvey type who got his position by low flatteries."

When he lived with his mother, their cat, Mysouff, used to escort him the first part of his journey to work and then meet him on the way back. And somehow Mysouff would sense the evenings when Dumas was going to be late and would not go out to meet him. Dumas considered this was a form of extra sensory perception. Later he got another cat, called Mysouff the Second, who was a stray that Dumas' cook took in. Dumas also had three tame monkeys. One day the monkeys raided the aviary where Dumas kept rare birds, let in Moussoff the Second who then ate all the birds.

I think it is a pity Dumas didn't write about four cats. He could have called it The Four Mouseketeers. Celia says she would have read it as she is much more interested in cats than men in lace roaming around looking for fights. Cats are as dashing, as beautiful, and as dangerous (at least to mice) as musketeers.

Miaouwwww

Love George

PS. My social secretary is off to college so comments arriving after Sunday noon may be a bit late on getting on to the blog, depending on whether she can access it from the very strange college computers. But they will be put on. She is making small but persistent noises about statistics. Humans do spend a lot of time thinking about useless subjects. Empty headed apes, as Whicky Wuudler would so rightly say.

PPS. Don't know where to find mouse foie gras but there is a company sells freeze dried mouse treats at http://www.petextras.com/pofdmo21gr.html




9 comments:

  1. Hey Porthos, you were supposed to be the "fat" one! What happened to you?
    Hopefully ...Richelieu is not up to some schemes to keep you fit!
    Love
    Fluffy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear George,
    If I'm right...there was a movie (animation) entitled "The Four Mouseketeers" with, of course, four mice and a cat as Richelieu.
    I really think you should do something about Celia; "take her to the river, take to a movie":-)
    She's too much into the statistics thing.
    Hugs
    Cayenne

    ReplyDelete
  3. Porthos, mon ami, if your Richelieu is serving foie gras....PLEASE give me your address!
    Minnie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ola Porthos & George,
    What is foie gras? Where can I get some?
    I assume it is ....'delicious"?
    Diego

    ReplyDelete
  5. Porthos, apes can barely find their own backsides with their own hands, yet alone count to four. It is always best to discourage thought in apes. Thought distracts them from their duties of serving us. I am amazed your Cardinal managed to work out it was Christmas. A cat must have helped him by placing a paw print on the right day in the diary.

    Whicky Wuudler

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  6. Hello Porthos and George !
    I may be able to help you on that one: my mummy (who's french), told me that the book was actually set as the memoirs of d'Artagnan, and really starts with his arrival in Paris where he gets into trouble and ends up having a duel against 3 of the king's musketeers - but as duels are then forbidden, the whole thing is cut short by Richelieu's guards, and d'Artagnan ends up becoming pal with those 3 musketeers, Porthos, Athos and Aramis.
    So 3 became 4 !

    KattyCat.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well! I can't read and don't expect to learn at my age, so I appreciate the mini book report. My humans always have their noses stuck in a book, but they never read to ME and haven't bothered to teach me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. KattyCat,
    That's an amazing story! Thanks for sharing with us! Now...I really wish to meet D'Artagnan :-)
    Cayenne

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sir WinstonJanuary 27, 2010

    KattyCat.....kudos to your mom!
    Sir Winston

    ReplyDelete

Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.

This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org