random felicitous ponderings

why are there no cats in Middle Earth?

No, the nine cats of Queen Berúthiel don't count

why are there no household or companion cats in the primary texts?

Hrmph.

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In Letters, there is this response from Tolkien to his publishers, following a cat breeder's request to name kittens after LotR characters:

I fear that to me Siamese cats are the fauna of Mordor, but you need not tell the cat breeder that.

The Letters do not reveal how Tolkien felt about Manx, Himalayan, Persian, Maine Coon, Devon Rex, etc. cats, however. ;-)

Does her tenth cat count? She had nine black and one white. There's also the cat in Frodo's poem at the Prancing Pony.

My guess is that hobbits don't have cats because of size issues. We had a quite vicious cat once, and if she'd been twice the size I'd bear scars to this day. At least.

Elves don't have cats because elves *must* be the coolest beings around.

By William Hyde (not verified) on 21 Jan 2010 #permalink

I would think cats probably look at hobbits and see something edible.