Don't pet this cat with your lowly human hand. Only plastic, tiny hands will do. Animalkind, USA TODAY

A reflection on T.S. Elliot and how humans and cats bonded with each other.


"The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,

"It isn’t just one of your holiday games;

"You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter

"When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES".

— T. S. Eliot, “The Naming of Cats”

People measure their lives in multiple ways like locations, houses, children, or jobs. For some, cats entwine their moments and days.

Anne Sayle, a painter and wife of a Mississippi farmer, says the farm’s current king cat is a 13-pound, 10-year-old Persian or Maine Coon that acknowledges four names:  Charles/Charlie/Charlemagne/Fluffy Britches. Charles, as Sayles calls him, more than fulfills Eliot’s humorous naming observation.

Charles came to the farm as an adult, having been removed from Memphis because he terrorized a neighborhood’s cats and dogs. “He stares at you fiercely like an owl or eagle,” Sayles says.

Gray-and-white Charles found the farm to his liking. “He’s sweet indoors but once outside, he faces the natural predators of the country—bobcats, raccoons, feral cats, panthers, dogs, coyotes, eagles, and snakes,” Sayles says. “He’s like a samurai warrior. A killer cat, long-haired, and beautiful.”

City-dweller Joan Sommerfield remembers Boo, an indoor cat.

One night while she opened a package of frozen green beans, “Boo was on his tippy toes looking over the counter. He wasn’t allowed on it. I gave him some segments; he ate them and wanted more. From then on, every night I gave him green beans,” Sommerfield recalls. “Over time, I noticed his coat was shinier.” 

Boo was a big tabby, black, gray, and white. Sommerfield remembers he had big feet and plenty of hair between his toes, something common with the breed, Norwegian Forest. Boo allowed her to gently cut that hair with little scissors.

Boo loved to play. When he heard Sommerfield changing the sheets, he would run and burrow between them. She simply made the bed over him, knowing “eventually he’d come out.”

Boo became the house watchdog. “If he told me something, I believed him; he was always right,” she says.

Currently with two cats, Sommerfield believes animals bring her closer to God. “The more I listen to them, the more they try to communicate. But when I’m preoccupied and bogged down in my own life, they stop trying,” she says.

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Emmie Lu came to Evelyn Lupardus on a trial basis

“There were adjustments,” chuckles Lupardus, a caregiver and cat lover. “On both sides.”

The two met because Lupardus and a friend and her dog walk frequently in a memorial park. A cat, short-haired, black, and sleek, greeted them regularly. The women began bringing food. “She would say good-bye in her queen pose, with her paws crossed,” Lupardus remembers.

The friend (“a forceful person,” Lupardus grins) decided that the cat and Lupardus would suit.  So the cat was caught, spayed, and taken home. The two share a pretty house with a big picture window that’s good for watching birds. Lupardus likes coming home and being welcomed by a waiting, regally-posed Emmie Lu. 

From New York felines to Memphis cats

Jess Wilkins and husband Luke started their marriage nine years ago in New York, owning three cats while living there. Now, they have three daughters, the same cats, and a larger house in Memphis.

Their first feline, Bobcat, adopted Luke before the marriage. She would climb a wall to his second floor widow and put a treasure on his pillow, something like a dead mouse or bird. Jess brought Charlie, an orange, short-haired, and wild tabby. Francis came as well. He’s a Balinese with really, really blue eyes and fluffy, creamy-brown colored hair. “He’s my favorite,” Jess says. “We’ve loved each other from the very beginning. It was destiny.”

At night, Francis sleeps near Jess’s head. “He nuzzles and slobbers, which is really gross,” she laughs. Bobcat sleeps between her and Luke but closer to Luke. “Everybody knows she loves Luke.”

Yet as cats do, “Bobcat leads a double life,” Jess confides. “Every now and then she goes to a nearby street and stays with another man.”

Cats can change. “Charlie turned into a really sweet cat after I had a baby. He follows us on walks around the neighborhood.”

Throughout a day, Jess and Francis chat. “Maybe he hears, ‘I love you,’ every time we talk. We comfort each other,” Jess says.

Cats traditionally have the last word. They seem to know, as Sayle says, that “they’re in charge.” Eliot agrees and continues his humorous poem:

Robin Gallaher Branch, a Fulbright scholar, teaches adjunct courses in the department of religion and philosophy at Christian Brothers University in Memphis. She can be reached at

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