Henrietta Hay's Column

Babe and his buddy got sprung last week. Babe is a friend of mine who has been undergoing 30 days of house arrest. He is not a juvenile delinquent, but he used very poor judgment late one night. He has four feet and he planted all four of them in trouble.

Babe is not a pig, either, but a handsome part Siamese cat with paws so white it seems he should keep them for display and not use them for walking. He is quite indignant over what happened to him. He was sitting on his balcony one summer night when a bat flew by. We don't know exactly what happened, but in the ensuing disagreement Babe and the bat both ended up indoors. When his housemate got her hysterics under control, she ejected the bat and called animal control and her vet. Although Babe's shots were current, he was sentenced to a 30-day quarantine just to be on the safe side. He was allowed to serve it in house arrest with his buddy Tigger to keep him company.

Now that he is a free cat again he is rapidly regaining control of the neighborhood as he stalks around on the end of his multi-colored leash, alternately glowering at passersby and flopping over on his back with his white paws waving in the air.

Cats are finally taking their rightful place in American lifestyles. I was glad to see a recent news story telling us that they have now surpassed dogs as America's most popular pets. Franklin Loew, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell explains that, "Dogs represent America of yesteryear; cats are the next millennium."

After several First Dogs, it does help to have a First Cat presiding over the White House. Socks has replaced Milly, but he has not yet written a book. Maybe one is in the works.

I am definitely not a Rush Limbaugh fan, but occasionally in the car I listen to him to find out who he is excoriating now. Imagine my surprise recently to hear him waxing quite sentimental about the new kitten he and his wife have acquired. Do you suppose there is hope for Rush? One of his callers - a confessed dog-lover - suggested that cats are the liberals of the animal world, but Rush and I agree that that is wrong. Cats are too autocratic, too self-centered to be Liberals. Oops! Did I just say I agree with Rush on something?

Of course the whole world does not feel the way I do about cats.

In what might be called my study in "comparative animals" I finally saw the movie, "Babe," and thoroughly enjoyed it. I do have one major protest though. The only villain in the piece was Cat. That did not seem quite fair, since all the other animals were so nice. Even Maa the matriarchal sheep came out looking better than Cat, and everybody knows dogs and cats and pigs are smarter than sheep. Pig is quite delightful, but frankly I'd rather have a cat than a pig sleeping on the foot of my bed.

Cats abound in art and literature. There are pictures of them in the earliest recorded history. In a more recent art form we find some great cartoon cats. One of the best will be remembered only by those of my generation. Krazy Kat, whose nemesis was Ignatz the mouse went in for puns and alliterations and attracted a highly literate audience? Of the more modern cartoon generation the rakish, sophisticated Kliban cats are far and away the best, and I am sad that there will not be any more of them. Then there is Garfield, a cat with an attitude, whom I prefer to ignore.

Cats are remarkable creatures, sleek, aloof, mysterious and often funny. Erma Bombeck, who was not a cat lover, had this to say. "If cats were human they'd watch 'Masterpiece Theater', drive a German import car, belong to the country club, melt brie before serving, subscribe to the New York Times Book Review every Sunday and think that Harley-Davidson is a law firm."

I'm glad my buddy Babe is out of quarantine. And I do hope that he now knows the difference between a bat and a wind-up toy.