Daemonium cattus (SA/2021)
I.
Reflecting on the above picture, an Irish friend of mine expressed her concern that a demon may have taken possession of my cat in order to gain easy access not only to my home, but to my soul. I told her I thought this unlikely, but promised I would be on my guard and let her know if anything strange were to happen.
Whilst I think Gaelle was only joking, it's interesting how the sensuous figure of the cat - particularly the black cat - continues to carry with it a long history of symbolism and superstition; one might think that the Devil himself has whiskers, rather than horns.
Obviously, things have improved somewhat for our feline friends since medieval times, when they were so closely associated with witchcraft and the forces of evil that, in 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull condemning all cats - and their human companions - to death.
But, even today, in some quarters the old fear and stupidity persists ... And so we come to the case of Pixel ...
II.
Image credit: Kennedy News and Media
A rather unique-looking pussy in Green Bay, Wisconsin, has been dubbed a hellcat by an exorcist who has urged the owner, Alyson Kalhagen, to cage him and pray, until the demon that possesses her two-year-old Cornish Rex has departed.
Ms. Kalhagen intended to showcase the beauty and refinement of Pixel by posting photos of him online. Unfortunately, the response she received wasn't quite what she hoped for, as numerous people declared that Pixel was, at the very least, the creepiest cat on the internet, if not actually devil-spawn.
Others likened Pixel to a werewolf, a vampire bat, or a character from a Tim Burton film ...
Happily, Ms. Kalhagen just laughs away these comments and continues to adore Pixel, insisting that, despite his rather startling features, he's actually a very sweet-natured cat - as well as one with over 12,000 followers on social media.*
* Note: any reader interested in becoming one of these followers may care to visit the Facebook page Pixel shares with his blue-eyed, white-furred sister, Sophie: click here. Or, if you prefer, you can find Pixel and Sophie on Instagram: click here.
