Henry's Cats

In 1936, readers of the Liverpool Echo were intrigued to read of the death of a London millionaire who apparently chose to live in a Portland Place hotel while maintaining a palatial Regents park residence for the sole occupancy of his three beloved cats. This individual was none other than Sir Henry Wellcome.

Over the past year, whilst celebrating the 75th anniversary of Wellcome Trust's foundation, we have learned much about the life, work and achievements of Henry Wellcome. We have been reminded of Wellcome the collector, entrepreneur, philanthropist and even inventor, but this report hints at another side of his character - Henry Wellcome was an archetypal cat owner, with the eccentricities to match.

The claim may seem surprising, implausible even, but a search around in the Wellcome Library's archives quickly unearths more evidence for the great man’s devotion to his feline friends...

With the winter holidays approaching, many of the cat owners amongst us will be contemplating time away from our pets and find ourselves writing novella-length notes for those brave souls entrusted with their care.

Henry Wellcome, it seems, was no different. Nestling in the recesses of his personal papers are page after page of instructions for successive pet-sitters; those whose task it was to keep the little darlings happy had no small job on their hands. One memo notes that the cats were "accustomed to eating cooked beef, ox & lamb liver & kidney, boiled hake and cod, salmon & sardines", and, occasionally, "a little raw beef, if it is finely cut up" (from WA/HSW/PE/A.30).

Fresh meat and fish was delivered to No. 6 Gloucester Gate daily by Wellcome’s butcher and fishmonger (‘NOT from a ‘cats meat’ butcher”) and were cooked there and then by Wellcome’s staff to be enjoyed with fresh milk and water. On Sundays, by which time the patience of the cook was presumably wearing thin, the cats were treated to a tin of salmon. “Under NO circumstances must they be given pork or pork liver or kidney”, demand the instructions. Potatoes were also strictly, if inexplicably, forbidden.

Neither were their sartorial needs neglected: when the cats travelled they took their brushes and beds with them and it was Wellcome’s "special desire" that the cats should be "well cared for and not teased or abused in any way".

As the 75th anniversary comes to a close it’s interesting to discover a heretofore overlooked aspect of Henry Wellcome’s personality and one that helps us relate to the great man on a more personal level. And, whilst you cat owners out there buying Hill’s Science Diet food can take note of Henry’s cat care legacy, the cat-sitters amongst us can gain some comfort from not having to face the terrible responsibility of minding Henry Wellcome’s pampered pets!

Images:
- Cutting from the Liverpool Echo, 1st August 1936 (from WF/M/GB/29/32/02)
- An example of HW’s holiday care instructions
- 'Pip' with one of her kittens

Authors: Jo Maddocks and Sharon Messenger

End of June Garden Update

The garden has sprung to life in the last few weeks. These are some new Zinnia Pixie Sunshine plants that I received free in a seed order. I planted them in a pot on the deck and they are going to be a fantastic choice for a container.


Vegetables are growing like crazy.


Flowers are blooming in all corners in many shapes and sizes. These day lilies are amazingly beautiful in real life.


The colors of summer are amazing and I can't get enough of my day lilies this year.


Even the weeds are so very pretty. This self-heal is growing up along my fence line among some wild grapes that have planted themselves. I'm not sure where they came from but they are nice and green so they will stay.


The first round of herbs are ready to be harvested. Pesto anyone?


There are surprising new varieties of plants like this coleus.

And what garden post would be complete without a photo of my cat?


Water always tastes better out of the bird bath in the rose garden....at least that is what Miss Cocoa tells me anyway. This was during another one of my early morning walks outside in the cool air. Miss Cocoa decided to accompany me as I wandered through the garden and observed the nuthatches and woodpeckers.

Hope you enjoyed my garden update. Next week, I will share some more from my butterfly garden.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Cat Study: One of Our Favorite Subjects

These are our cats Cocoa and Espresso who in 2006 came to live with us. Yes, we can tell them apart...you look at their ears and one has white hair inside and the other does not. They also have very different personalities and habits so once you get to know them you really don't even need to look at their ears to identify them.

It seems like we have a never-ending cat study at our house. We have two beautiful Bombay cats (we are sure that they are mixed with something else as well) that love to socialize with us during our homeschooling day. We can't help but to see these gals up close on a regular basis.


We did do a little more research on the Bombay cat breed and we discovered that we have English Bombays and not American Bombays. It was obvious when we took a look at the differences. We know that they are mixed with something else because they have some longer fur and some white hair in a spot on their chest but they are most definitely related to the Bombay breed.


Our cats are remarkable sleepers. They spend most of their days sleeping in various parts of the house. As the photo above shows, they have always been able to find a comfortable place to sleep.


Cocoa loves to sleep on Mr. A's bed curled up in his big fleece gecko.


Here she is sleeping on my bed. I put out a piece of fleece fabric for her to sleep on or else she will curl up on my pillow. She will sleep on her back like this for long periods of time. I think it is very strange.

Espresso is more of a "sleep where it is convenient gal". She sleeps on kitchen chairs, curled up in a box, or laying on the back deck in the sun.


They are both big time hunters and they will watch from the inside of the window as the birds sit in the feeders. Their tails will be swishing, ears alert, eyes wide, making cat sounds as they watch.


They also like to frequent the school table and sit on papers, binders, or textbooks. No matter that we might be actually trying to work...they make themselves at home.

Our lives are full of the entertaining things that cats do and especially since we are home all the time do we enjoy having them around to keep us company and warm. We recently found one hiding in a paper bag and we left the bag out for a few days and it became the favored sleeping spot for both cats.


My husband does not consider himself a cat lover but these two feline girls have captured his heart. They will even jump into his lap for a good scratch under the chin and then they reward him with a lap full of purring, furry, sleeping cat. Cats are smart.

This was a fun challenge and my boys and I decided we could write about our cats every week, telling a new tale of their sweetness.

Instead, next time I will posting about our snake studies.....not quite such a lovable entry.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Covent Garden Cats

St Paul's in Covent Garden otherwise known as the actors church was built and designed in 1633 by Inigo Jones after whom the two resident tabby cats are named.

OHC Spring Series #7 Mammal Study-Cats

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #7 Mammal Study-Cats

“The kittens meantime train themselves to agility and dexterity, by playing rough and tumble with each other, and by chasing every small moving object, even to their own tails….The cat loves warmth and finds her place beneath the stove or at the hearthside. She likes some people, and dislikes others, for no reason we can detect.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 264

Inside Preparation Work:
Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 260-266. Highlight points you would like to share with your children or read to them from the book.


Outdoor Hour Time:

“This lesson may be used in primary grades by asking a few questions at a time and allowing the children to make their observations on their own kittens at home…”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 265

Use the suggested observation questions from Lesson 64 to help your child study a cat up close. Perhaps use Observation #5-8 as an investigation of your very own cat. Paws, eyes, teeth, and whiskers are all easy subjects to focus on for now. You can always come back and use the other suggestions at another time.

If you have an outdoor cat, spend some time observing her in her daily activities. Remember to take your 10-15 minutes of outdoor time and let your children explore to see if they can see any other mammals in the neighborhood. Make sure to look for paw prints in the mud or dirt. If you find some tracks, take a few minutes to carefully observe some of the details.


Follow-Up Activity:
After your observations and outdoor time, have your child tell you some of the things he remembers about the nature study. Did you observe a cat up close? Offer some time for a journal entry using the notebook page provided with the Spring Series ebook, a blank notebook page from my sidebar (there is a mammal page in this set), or a blank nature journal of your own.

Draw the parts of the cat that you observed: paws, claws, teeth, eyes, whiskers, or anything else your child found interesting. You may need to help your children label their entries.

It might be interesting to follow up your cat study with a dog study and compare the two mammals.

If you found paw prints in the mud or dirt, you might enjoy reading this website that compares various feline and canine prints. http://www.bear-tracker.com/caninevsfeline.html


More Information about Mammals and Cats
If you are interested in learning more about mammals, here is a link that you might enjoy: Mammals on Yahoo! Kids
If you would like a complete lapbook set on Mammals from Hearts and Trees, here is the link:
Hearts and Trees Mammal Lapbook Kit

Here is a link to a free Cat Lapbook and Unit Study: Cats on Homeschool Share

Please make sure to come back and post your link on Mr. Linky after completing this challenge and writing your blog entry. I always love to come by and see what you are up to!

If you would like all the Spring Series Challenges in one place, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the spring months as well as custom notebooking pages for each of the challenges. Please see this entry for more details:

Spring Nature Study with Art and Music Appreciation

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Nature Study Interrupted

The sun was out again today and what started out as a very frosty morning, turned into a *warm in the sun* sort of day. We decided to go out and look around the yard for moss since it is going to be the focus of this week's Outdoor Hour Challenge.....more on that Friday.

We were successful in finding moss in all the usual places but what captured our attention this morning is the lavender along the front driveway. This lavender is blooming again and this is even after I cut it back several months ago. This little habitat was buzzing with bees and if you could smell the fragrance, you would think it was mid-summer.

Bees buzzing


Cat hiding and peeking

What a great interruption to our nature study this morning.

I am more than ever determined to get outdoors each day that I can squeeze it in now that I have a growing appreciation for our temperate climate. I sit inside and think that it is "too cold" to go outdoors but then I think of the families dealing with snow and ice already and I know I have *no excuse*.

Look what we had the chance to enjoy this morning! I should not be surprised to find something interesting but I always am.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

April Showers of Photos: April 24 Red Poppy

Beautiful morning light enhanced the delicate texture of this oriental poppy just about to burst all the way open.

The combination of textures between the flower itself and the covering of the flower just amaze me.

A few hours later the sun had burst open the flower but left part of the covering nestled inside. I could not help but take another photo.

Couldn't resist including one more photo of the poppy being guarded by my cat Cocoa.

Thanks to Jennifer for hosting an April Showers of Photos challenge on her blog S/V Mari Hal-O-Jen.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Western Scrub Jays

(you can click on any of the photos to make them larger)

During this morning's outdoor walk I had fun watching a pair of Western scrub jays in our backyard. The first one was making a big squawking scene in the top of the liquid amber tree. In the photo above he is posing for me in the sunlight.

Here is the other jay in the pine tree just waiting for the first jay to stop making such a big fuss. They both wanted to get to the birdfeeders but my cat was roaming the yard in search of a good place to take a bath in the sun. Here is where she settled on....the roof of our bbq.
She didn't stay there long with the birds swooping around her. The jays are not in the least bit afraid of her...they are rather large aggressive birds and can defend themselves very well. I'm not sure why all of a sudden she thinks that she needs to be up high but we are enjoying her climbing adventures.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Of Dandelions and Paperwhites

Today was a warm, sunny day in my neck of the woods. I went out with my camera to capture the paperwhites that started blooming this week and look what was waiting to greet me......a dandelion in the grass.

It made me smile and feel so much better after a week of being sick with a cold and the flu. Isn't it amazing how a little yellow flower can lift your spirits?

The paperwhites are starting to bloom by the mailbox so now as the days tick on I will have a steady bloom of paperwhites, daffodils, and then day lilies.
The delicate fragrance is so wonderful as these bloom in the warm sun.


Here is what the Handbook of Nature Study says on page 534 about the dandelion:
"The following are the tactics by which the dandelion conquers us and takes possession of our lands: a: It blossoms early in the spring and until snow falls, producing seed for a long season. b: It is broadminded as to its location, and flourishes on all sorts of soils. c: It thrusts its long taproots down into the soil, and thus gets moisture and food not reached by other plants. d: its leaves spread out from the base, and crowd and shade many neighboring plants out of existence. e: many insects visit it, and so it has plenty of pollen carriers to insure strong seeds; it can also develop seeds from its own pollen, or it even can develop seeds without any pollen. f: It develops almost numberless akenes, and the wind scatters them far and wide and they thus take possession of new territory. g: It forms vigorous leaf-rosettes in the fall, and thus is able to begin growth early in the spring. "


The Handbook of Nature Study has a whole section on dandelions including activities from pages 531-535.


(click to make the photo larger)
Doesn't this make you laugh? This is the same cat that thought she could "hide" in the birdfeeder. She really isn't very good at this hiding game. I imagine she is enjoying the view anyway.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Silly Mammal or Cat in the What?

You have heard of Cat in the Hat. How about Cat in the Birdfeeder? Do you think she really thought they wouldn't notice her *in* the feeder?

Silly mammal tricks.

On page 266 of the Handbook of Nature Study, the author gives us a list of writing assignments relating to cats we can suggest to our children. The one that I think fits this photo is, "The Things Which My Pet Cat Does".

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Cats: Up Close and Personal with Observations #1

The Handbook of Nature Study has lots of interesting things to do to observe your cat or kitten. Many of these activities I hadn't ever thought about before so I am grateful for the guidance of Anna Botsford Comstock.

On page 265 of HNS:
"This lesson may be used in primary grades by asking a few questions at a time and allowing the children to make their observations on their own kittens at home, or a kitten may be brought to school for this purpose. The upper grade work consists of reading and retelling or writing exciting stories of the great, wild, savage cats, like the tiger, lion, leopard, lynx, and panther."

Page 265 Observation #1:
"How much of Pussy's language do you understand? What does she say when she wishes you to open the door for her? How does she ask for something to eat? What does she say when she feels like conversing with you? How does she cry when hurt? When frightened? What noise does she make when fighting? When calling other cats? What are her feelings when she purrs? When she spits? How many things which you say does she understand?"

Our answers (given by my boys) Our cats give a soft meow when they want to go outside or they just sit by the door and wait. They sit in front of their empty dish and look at you when they wish for something to eat. They will rub up against you or jump up on our lap when they want a little "conversation". They hiss when they are hurt. The give a pitiful meow when they are frightened. When fighting, they hiss and put their ears down and chase each other through the house. They purr when they are enjoying a good pet and are relaxed. They will come when they are called "kitty". They come running when they hear the cupboard door open where their food is kept. They will jump down when you say sternly "down".

I think they did a good job answering the questions.

We will continue next week with our cat activities.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom