I like cats…. When I meet a cat, I say, “Poor Pussy!” and stoop down and tickle the side of its head; and the cat sticks up its tail in a rigid, cast-iron manner, arches its back, and wipes its nose up against my trousers; and all is gentleness and peace. – Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), 1889

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want. – Joseph Wood Krutch