#cats ramblings

[dealilcats]

Have you ever thought about the fact that Macavity just sounds sick. Like, "very tall and thin", "eyes are sunken in", "coat dusted from neglect", "whiskers are uncombed", "he sways his head from side to side", "always wide awake".

Which makes sense. T.S.E. based him on Professor Moriarty, and sickness and 'uglyness' were often associated with evil in literature (think like Jekyll and Hyde), so Macavity is evil and he carries it on his body like an illness.

He has a "respectable" side, and he can be found "in a by street", "in the square", "resting, or a licking of his thumbs, or engaged in doing complicated long division sums". (The latter is, again, just a reference to Moriarty, but hilarious when applied to a cat, like the equivalent of whistling with hands behind your back).

Because all his crimes are either done for him, it seems, or carried out so efficiently, that he doesn't need to linger one moment. So that even though "the Secret service" swears up and down "it must've been Macavity", they have no real way to prove it.

When applied to Moriarty, this creates an evil mastermind:

"The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every devilry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations—that's the man!

But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year's pension as a solatium for his wounded character."

Holmes, The Valley of Fear

"He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organiser of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city..."

Holmes, "The Final Problem"

(Citations from wikipedia)

But then you remember Macavity is a cat, and so the idea that he's "broken every human law" is as preposterous as him being capable of complex equations. It's just exaggeration. There's no real consequences. Macavity does crime, he's as slimy and slippery as a snake, and he gets away with it, and it's funny because he's a damn cat, baffling the entirety of Scotland Yard.

But if we're talking song, that's an entirely different story. Demeter sings about him, and she's stricken with grief and fear, and she sounds like she's warning you to keep watching over your shoulder because you never know where you might (not) encounter him. Bombalurina seems mildly turned on, but it's not like she's paying him any compliments. They changed the line from "they say he cheats" to "I know he cheats", which along with "always wide awake" makes it sound like she's speaking from experience, and with the choreography sounds more like she's telling Demeter (but mostly the audience) not to believe whatever facade he may put up because, after all, he's a "monster of depravity".

And adding onto what I was saying earlier about sickness, with the way he's "not there" and no one can catch him, not even his footprints, he almost sounds like a ghost. Hell, apparently he has "powers of levitation". Demeter certainly looks like she's seen a ghost, like it's whispering in her ears and tormenting her with all that he's implied to have done to her.

And his costume is just as horrifying - in the 98 ver, the makeup is so over the top, the long claws, the messy fur, the sharp stripes, he looks nightmarish, and completely out of place when compared to the other cats. He matches the description to a T, he's exactly what you expected, and then some.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, the musical makes you think about the consequences of what he does. It's not a silly cat confusing the humans. It's a depravate spreading his sickness on anything he touches, who fascinates with his appearance, but still cannot hide what he really is - and the fact that he gets away with it is terrifying.

[candycatfalls]

Wait the book of bill appearing to Ford first is fucking HILARIOUS actually. Ford literally killed Bill less than a month ago, and Bill's still banking so hard on him getting him out of therapy that the book shows up in Ford's stuff MULTIPLE TIMES. Girl the situationship has been over for thirty years give it up 💀

[happylandfill23]

i've had this garfield panel saved forever and i even marked in my calendar today as "the monday that wouldn't die" so uh. happy(?) monday the 22nd aka the monday that wouldn't die

[girlashfur]

new tumblr game. put in the tags a GENUINE flaw your fav(s) has. cant be something like "too kind" or "loves too much" like something genuinely bad messed up morally wrong they are or have done

[nikoisme]

fucking hate how cats think they can mrrp their way out of anything because yeah, they fucking can.

[arr-jim-lad]

i cant even properly explain how it emotionally affects me when my cat comes up to me for cuddles. small creature walks up to me, a giant, in search of a gentle touch, because he trusts me completely. that is what love is. that is what the universe is built for. i want to cry

[squishydem0ns]

"Is Vox inse-claw, purr-suing allure? Flitting between this cat and that, is nothing working?"

"IGNORE HIS CHIRPING!"

[tellewell]

i aquired a mini skimble plush for this reason... keep him with me for morale support ♥️♥️ its helped me with driving anxiety GENIUNELY.. i love u skimble

always remember: skimble wont let anything go wrong

[risetherivermoon]

me standing outside the clinic at 6am in the rain holding a jar of pickles above my head like a teenager with a boombox

[dealilcats]

Throwing this out there, il Sistina isn't the only italian adaptation that's been made and there's another online which I found a while before I learned about il Sistina. It was made by La Compagnia Della Rancia, you can listen to it here. I'm not planning on analysing this version, because the lyrics are almost the same as the poems, aside from a few exceptions.

I do quite like their version of Gus. They kept Firefrorefiddle (named him "Faucidifuoco" -flaming jaws - which fun fact, Sistina rumpus cat is said to have) And it doesn't have pekes, but it has growltigger (gattigre, catiger). And billy m'caw.

There's some things I like a lot, especially when it comes to the names - like Jennyanydots being Jennytuttapois, and Skimbleshanks being Sghembo (though I don't love the second part of his name, express, because it cuts off a syllable short). Sghembo just means lopsided, but I like how it sort of sounds like Skimble.

The naming of cats I also really like! Mostly for the names they list. Sistina did this too, they use emperor names and some really generic ones for the first part.

Rancia switches Coricopat's name with Occhibui, Darkeyes. (correction: occhibui is Griddlebone.)

I do not love tugger's name or song, (they changed it to Taggher, which sounds the same as Tugger, but doesn't mean anything) and they changed the terrible bore line to "he's always finding trouble" (toms singing). Bomba's line is also incredibly mild, but that's a thing with Sistina too.

Overall, I can't say I love it. The singing is fine, but the lyrics are far from perfect. They just feel weird at times. They still did some really clever things - like I said, with some names and certain lines which I even prefer to sistina. But I just can't get as obsessed with it as I am with Sistina because to me it feels like it's lacking some kind of charm? And all the liberties il sistina took with the lyrics, especially with it being non replica I think is what make it really pop.

[candycatfalls]

ok yknow what. I'm not a big human bill guy, but I'm gonna vouch for twink bill cipher for a second. look me in the eye and tell me that an eons old eldritch being running around cosplaying as a 20yo human twink and being chronically obsessed with a 60yo gilf he fumbled three decades ago that is actively trying to kill him is not an objectively funny concept

[foldingfittedsheets]

Imagine you were roommates with someone who didn’t speak your language. And like. You guys are best friends, you love your roommate so much. You hang out all the time and it’s great.

But sometimes when you go to scratch an itch they suddenly get so upset. Like they’ll yell or clap or make weird sounds. You have no idea why because you’re itchy. You gotta scratch the itch! But it makes them so upset that you only scratch itches when they aren’t around.

Otherwise stuff is fine, they feed you and you’re happy living with them. You play games and stuff and even though you don’t speak the same language you both have a lot of fun. It’s just that sometimes they’ll burst out for no reason and you just get to deal with it.

That’s basically what it’s like for our pets, I think.

[cryptidclaw]

I love warrior cats so much bec they are silly little kitty cats. Despite everything, despite all the horrors, they fucking look like this -

[girlashfur]

my dealer : got you some straight gas here ⛽🔥😜 this new strain is called "into the wild". you'll be zonked out of your gourd

me : yeah whatever. i don't feel shit.

5 minutes later : dude i swear i just saw a kittypet near the border

my buddy : [pacing around the camp] tigerclaw is lying to us

[fernacular]

Some people on this website wholeheartedly believe a cat will only try to bite its’ owner if it’s under traumatizing levels of stress.

I assure you cats will bite for a variety of reasons up to and including “fun and me time”

[opikiquu]