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Incarcerated Cats

Cats, being the inquisitive animals they are, sometimes become incarcerated by accident. Here are two cats that loved people so much they actually lived in prison by choice!

Jeoffry

Jeoffry was the only companion of Christopher Smart. A 18th-century poet and distinguished Cambridge scholar, who sank into poverty and ended up in a rat-infested cell in the London madhouse (Bedlam). Here is an extract from one of Smarts poems:

For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.

For he is tenacious of his point.

For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.

For he knows that God is his saviour.

For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.

For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.

For he is of the Lord's poor and so indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually....Poor Jeoffry! poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.

For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better.

For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in compleat cat.

Christopher Smart.

Trixie

Trixie was a black and white cat owned by the Earl of Southampton, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London by Queen Elizabeth the 1. The cat made its way across London and climbed down the chimney that led to the Earl's cell. Where it remained to keep him company for two years, until he was released. The Earl loved the cat so much that he commissioned a portrait to be painted of himself and his beloved Trixie together in his cell.

The Earl of Southampton and his Faithful Cat

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