TulsaPets Magazine September 2022

16 TulsaPets • September / October 2022 Caressing the Tiger Victor Hugo and His Cat Were Famous by Rowena Mills O nce upon a time in the nineteenth century, some French writers regarded their pets as an important part of their lives and helped to promote humane treatment of animals. Four of them — Victor Hugo (1802–1865), Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870), Théophile Gautier (1811–1872), and Champfleury (pseudonym of Jules Fleury-Husson, 1821– 1889) — had a good deal in common. They were famous, they were friends, and they shared a special fondness for felines. Of those four, Victor Hugo especially is still well known today. His popular novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862) continue to inspire stage and screen adaptations into the twen- ty-first century. Hugo was a playwright, poet, novelist, and politician and is considered the greatest French Romantic writer and an influential proponent of Romanticism. In France, he is remembered as one of the country’s best poets, but in other countries, he is better known for his novels. Hugo is revered as a beloved writer of the common joys and sorrows of people, and he wrote with sim- plicity and power. A gradual shift toward the humane treat- ment of people and animals had started in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the upper and middle classes and became more widespread in the nineteenth century. Urban planners of the time focused on cleanliness and sanitation, and some even proclaimed the tidy cat as their primary mascot. Hugo reflected that era. He marveled at the companionship of cats, and he wrote fondly in his diary about his felines. He had a magnificent Angora cat named Gavroche (later renamed Chanoine) who resembled a gentleman with a fluffy beard and mustache. (Gav- roche is also the name of the little street urchin in Les Misérables and the title of a recent spinoff musical.) All Hugo’s friends and family knew his cat, and one friend even thought the cat had modeled himself on Hugo, who wore a beard and mustache. The first edition of Champfleury’s 1869 book on cats, Les Chats: Histoire, Moeurs, Observations, Anecdotes , includes a picture of the rather wild-looking Chanoine with Hugo’s handwritten quotation from Joseph Méry (1797–1866). The same illustration was the frontispiece in the later deluxe editions of Champfleury’s book. The quo- tation Hugo chose translates more or less as “God has made the cat to give man the pleasure of caressing the tiger.” So when you caress your own tiger, re- member those long-ago French writers who gave their pets such a place in history and literature that we still know those felines’ names today. FOCUS ON FELINES Victor Hugo’s famous cat Chanoine was featured prominently in Champ- fleury’s 1869 book on cats, Les Chats: Histoire, Moeurs, Observations, An- ecdotes , with Hugo’s quotation from Joseph Méry: “God has made the cat to give man the pleasure of caressing the tiger.” 44 Years Full Service Veterinary for Small Animals and Exotic Pets 8134 S Harvard Ave • 918-481-0440 https://danner.vet DA N G . DA NN E R DVM, BS Holly AlbinoWallaby Lady Jasmine Vizsla S treet C atS , I nC . 6520 E. 60th St. (60th & S. Sheridan) | Tulsa, OK 74145 www.streetcatstulsa.org | 918.298.0104 (message line) Tuesday—Saturday: 10:30 am—5:00 pm All volunteer non profit adoption center and gift boutique If you like big girls, I’m your pick! Right now I weigh almost 20 lbs. but I can be a big snuggler and I love human attention. My birthdate is 5/1/2020 so I’m young. I promise to try to lose some weight if you’ll give me a home! JOSEPHINE