Speaking of cat, I'm just re-reading Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, and when he tells about visiting Morrocco, he says that (at that time) "Spain is the only nation the Moors fear" for various reasons, including of course propinquity.

Then he goes on:

"Spain chastised the Moors five or six years ago, about a disputed piece of property opposite Gibraltar, and captured the city of Tetuan. She (Spain) compromised on an aumentation of her territory, twenty million dollars' indemnity in money, and peace. And then she gave up the city.    But she never gave it up until the Spanish soldiers had eaten up all the cats. They would not compromise as long as the cats held out. Spaniards are very fond of cats. On the contrary, the Moors reverence cats as something sacred. So the Spaniards touched them on a tender point at that time. Their unfeline conduct in eating up all the Tetuan cats aroused a hatred for them in the breasts of the Moors, to which even driving them (the Moors) out of Spain was tame and passionless. Moors and Spaniards are foes forever now.

And I remember reading some Hemingway book in which a Spanish student in Paris confided that he had an excellent recipe for Arroz con Gato (Cat with Rice).

Dave Oesterreich