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I suppose I should have known that acquiring a cat would turn into an educational experience ... somehow, with me, everything does. Miss Kitty is my teacher, but so are my friends and neighbors ... and what did we do before Google and the Internet? My annual trip to the dental hygienist brought out stories about a stray cat she recently adopted ... with Bengal ancestry, apparently. She urged me to look up her cat's wild ancestors, Asian Leopard Cats, on the Internet. Well, let me tell you, those cats are WILD! They really do look like miniature leopards. And one thing leads to another on the Internet ... so the next thing I stumbled onto was an interesting and detailed discussion of coat colors, specifically, "Torties, Calicos and Tricolor Cats," by Barbara French in Rochester, NY. www.fanciers.com/cat-faqs/tricolors.shtml Sure enough, Miss Kitty seems to be a Tricolor Cat, like my daughter's Calico ... but different, in two distinct ways. Miss Kitty is a "tortoiseshell," which means the coat colors are well blended, rather than patchy. Also, her colors are "dilute": instead of orange and black and white, in cat fanciers' lingo, they are cream (dilute orange/red) and blue (diluted black), touches of white, a "blue cream." This opened a whole new perspective. Tonight, as I crumbled bleu cheese into sour cream and mayonnaise with garlic and wine vinegar to make salad dressing, instead of seeing Miss Kitty in terms of blended beige and gray, I was seeing her as dressed in rich creams and blue ... like Roquefort cheese ... and Stilton and, of course, Cheshire ... which is known for its blue veined yellowish cheese ... and for one very special cat, a cat that disappeared, leaving only its grin behind. Now this little essay should end right there, but on the premise that anything worth doing is worth OVERdoing, I'll add one more historical footnote. Perhaps what caused me to remember the Cheshire connection in the first place (since Cheshire is best known for its CHEDDAR cheese) is that there is another Cheshire known for its cheese in Massachusetts. We visited in '73 as we hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine: Cheshire, a valley town 10 miles north of Pittsfield, boasts ... one of the most unusual monuments anywhere, which celebrates the 1,235 pound cheese presented to President Jefferson by Cheshire farmers. "'The Great Cheese' symbolized Cheshire's satisfaction with the election of Thomas Jefferson to the Presidency in 1800. The idea of creating this monster among edibles was put forth by a baptist clergyman of Cheshire, Elder John Leland. A friend of Jefferson, he thought the town should send the new executive a testimonial of esteem." [The Berkshire Hills, by Federal Writers' Project, © 1939, Berkshire Hills Conference, Inc.] Many Appalachian Trail through-hikers receive mail and provisions at the village post office. Read all about Cheshire, Massachusetts here: |
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