SALVE ROMA! A Felidae Novel - U.S. Edition
Page 20
Despite this relentless prosecution, many people stuck to their heathen belief and created the premises for fact that the old cat mythologies survived the inquisition. For example, the symbolic cross connection between women and cats celebrates a comeback in modern culture; in Northern Europe black cats are seen as lucky charms again, and even the Egyptian belief in cats’ divine origin has partially survived the Dark Ages.
6. »Man is a reasoning animal«, the Roman philosopher Seneca once said. Cats have a similar relationship with swimming than their two-legged masters have with reasoning: They know how to do it, but they avoid it whenever it’s possible. Most cats would never put themselves into the wet element by choice, and salt water seems to stick in their claws the most. When it comes to saving their own skin though, even the most hydrophobic pussyfooter comes up with respectable arts of swimming. A swimming cat is unlikely to drown, unless it is totally exhausted or has to struggle against high waves. The Ancient Egyptians by the way didn’t just have cats to guard their granaries but also to assist them with fishing.
The instinctive revulsion of water seems to have its cause partially in the fact that moisture steals the cat fur’s ability to insulate. In warmer Southern areas cats are a little more sympathetic with water. The »Turkish Van«, which is also called Turkish Swimming Cat and whose name comes from the salty Lake Van in Turkey, even has a blast with H2O: This cat loves to jump into the water, and sometimes it even swims towards arriving ships. Among the wild relatives of our soft mousers real nixies can be found. In contrary to the lion, which is able to swim like all cats but is not a real friend of water, the tiger displays an extraordinary love for the wet element. The kittens already splash around in water, and in the summer heat there doesn’t seem to be a more comfortable thing for tigers than a nice pool time. Jaguar and serval also swim and fish with passion. The Southeast Asian fishing cat naturally wades through shallow water and is said to hunt for fish even by swimming and diving. The Indian bengal cat even managed to resettle from the mainland to surrounding islands by swimming.
Although house cats are able to keep their heads above the water, we can’t just leave them to the wet element with no strings attached. Dangers lurk in half-filled bathtubs, rain barrels and swimming pools. Slippery rims can easily mean death by drowning. Therefore don’t leave half-filled bathtubs unattended, and cover rain barrels, which are not filled to the bursting point. The deathtrap of a swimming pool can be defused with an angular ramp. It’s rather unlikely that cats drown in a pond. To keep them from tangling in water plants or not being able to climb up the pond bank, one should leave the littoral zone free from winders. It is possible to revive a drowned cat by grabbing the rear legs and swinging the cat heavily between one’s own legs. This should remove the water from its lungs and stimulate breathing. If the breathing doesn’t return, an artificial respiration and/or a cardiac massage may be required.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Akif Pirinçci
Pirinçci was born on the 29th April 1959 in Istanbul. He began to write fiction at a young age, and published his first novel Tränen sind immer das Ende (literally meaning »tears always are the end«) in 1980, at the age of 21. His next literary work, published in 1989, was the novel Felidae, a work of crime fiction with cats as the main protagonists. The novel has been translated into 17 languages and became an international bestseller. Due to the enormous success of the novel, Pirinçci expanded his concept of »cat crime fiction« and published several sequels to Felidae, out of which only one, namely Felidae on the road (Felidae II), has been translated into English. An animated movie based on Felidae, the script of which had been co-written by Pirinçci, has been produced in Germany in 1994, and was also dubbed in English. Pirinçci has published several other novels which were not set in the fictional reality of the Felidae series. He had a big success with his fantastic thriller "The Back Door" which was made into a German moving picture and will be remade by Hollywood.
Pirinçci currently lives in Bonn, the former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Wikipedia
Visit Akif Pirinçci at Facebook and www.akifpirincci.blogspot.com