You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats. – Proverb

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

A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent to another kitten with which the forepart plays. She does not discover that her tail belongs to her until you tread on it. – Henry David Thoreau