No other animal has managed to get itself tangled up in as much legend, myth, symbolism, religion, history, and human affairs as the cat. From the time it first appeared upon the scene some four thousand years ago, it has played its part in almost every age. . . . Black magic, white magic, good luck and bad, a hundred superstitions, covering every aspect of human life and condition, are ascribed to the cat. . . . Here is a compendium to attract mere mortals . . . there is a magic about it overall, and what we would dearly love to be is magicians with supernatural powers. The cat would seem to have retained some of these occult faculties. Let us therefore be friends to them and friends to their friends.
-Paul Gallico, Honorable Cat