The question I am going to pose is why did Lovecraft love cats. Sure, cats throughout the ages have been worshipped as gods then became a symbol of evil when they became associated with witches, the cause of bad luck “don’t let a black cat cross your path”. Lovecraft once wrote in his essay entitled “Cats and Dogs” H.P. Lovecraft goes into depths about the superiority of cats, stating “The dog appeals to cheap and facile emotions; the cat to the deepest founts of imagination and cosmic perception in the human mind.” We all know that cats are independent, aloof and consider themselves far superior to us lowly humans. Lovecraft also compared “dogs to peasants and cats to being gentlemen”.
The cat played major parts in several of his stories – from The Cats from Ulthar to The Rats in the Walls. In the Dream Quest of the Unknown Kaddith, the story protagonist Randolph Carter befriends a small black kitten by giving it pets and feeding the kitten sweet cream. Later when Randolph is captured, he is rescued by an army of cats – Cats never forget kindness and that actually shows in real life. Later in the story “The Dream Quest of the Unknown Kaddith” Randolph learns that several cats have attacked and eaten a few zoogs. For those who don’t know a zoog is a sentient forest dwelling creature that HATE cats – in fact they hunt kittens for food and in return are hunted by fully grown cats. Does he care that his allies attacked and eaten the zoogs? No of course not, for like Lovecraft the only inhabitant of the dream lands he likes are cats and only cats.
So, to answer the question I posed in the beginning of this rant, I will use my personal experience – In my life I have had dogs and I have had cats (I am currently the proud human servant of a 25+ pound cat named Blu) Yes he loved cats and there is nothing wrong with that.
