For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry/For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him … /For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation/For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he’s a good Cat/For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon/For every house is incompleat without him and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.
from “Jubilate Agno” by Christopher Smart (1722–1771)1
| Appolinaris, Beelzebub, Blatherskaite, Buffalo Bill* | Mark Twain (1835–1910), American author/humorist |
| Beppo | Jose Luis Borges (1899–1986), Argentinian author |
| Bismarck | Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), English nurse |
| Blackie, Jock, Nelson,Tango* | Winston Churchill (1874–1965), British prime minister |
| Chess,Checkmate | Aleksander Alekhine (1892–1946), chess master |
| Cobby | Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), novelist |
| Fuckchop | Trent Reznor (1965–), lead singer Nine Inch Nails |
| George Pushdragon* | T. S. Eliot (1888–1965), poet, critic |
| Gujarat2 | John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–), economist |
| Langbourne | Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), British philosopher |
| Mrs. Chippy | ship’s cat on the Endurance expedition, 1914 |
| Nigeraurak | ship’s cat on the Karluk expedition, 1913 |
| Siam3 | Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893), 19th US President |
| Taki | Raymond Chandler (1888–1959), American crime writer |
| Trim | ship’s cat on the Investigator’s circumnavigation of Australia, 1801–1803 |
1 Poem written “between 1758 and 1763, largely while in a madhouse”; Smart’s mania took the form of compulsive praying, and trying to get his friends to do the same.
* and others.
2 Name changed from “Ahmedabad” when Indian officials complained during Galbraith’s period as ambassador.
3 The first Siamese cat to reach the US, in 1878, a gift from his consul in Bangkok.