Cat and Super Cat
In my last blog about our new book, 'The Field of Reeds: in Shadows,' I was talking about the terrible liberties we have taken with Egyptian history, myth, folklore and even geography. Just to quickly reiterate, to save you checking it out if you haven't read it, I can sum it up with that famous quote from MythBusters, 'I reject your reality and substitute my own.' The things we have 'got wrong,' are only wrong, from the perspective of the book being set in the real Egypt. It isn't, it is set in our own private version of Egypt, where we make the rules. So, rest assured, it is all one hundred percent accurate. 😊
We have taken a very different approach though, when it comes to the cats in the book. (For context, if you haven't seen the book blurb, or watched the video, most of the major characters in the book are cats). It was important to us, that the cats were cats.
We really didn't want to go down the route that so many do in this type of book, the 'little people in furry trousers,' thing. These are not hobbits with a tail and whiskers.
The cat behaviour, body language, senses and abilities, their physicality, was as accurate as we could make it. Apart from them being able to talk obviously. 😊
The guiding notion was, that if this was a movie and you watched it with the sound down, only at the more extreme moments, would you see anything other than cats doing cat things. (I will come back to the extreme moments shortly). Without the narration, or dialogue, there are cats sitting around on roof tops, lounging under trees, napping, eating, running, jumping, climbing, scrapping and hunting. You know, cat things. Even when they are interacting with humans, if you can't hear the conversation, what you would see, is a cat rubbing around someone's legs, being fussed, getting their tails tugged. The cats, as best we can make them, are cats.
There are the more extreme bits of course, (see, I said I would come back to that). This is an epic fantasy book. Extreme things do have to happen, it comes with the territory.
You are no doubt now saying, 'My Mr Tiddles and little Snowball wouldn't fight a supernatural monster, they would hide under the bed until it had gone.' Well, quite apart from the fact that that would make for a very dull book, (despite being a very sensible course of action), cats are capable of a lot more than you might suppose, if they need to be. Just think a minute, haven't you ever seen any of that stuff on You Tube, Instagram, Tik-Tok etc where cats attack foxes trying to steal their dinner from the front porch? Where they face down dogs and even larger animals like bears, fur bushed, tails fluffed, hissing and growling like cougars?
Cats have all the same skills and equipment as lions and tigers, they just come on a smaller scale.
I do agree though, that we are certainly pushing the boundaries of what is even remotely possible at times. So, I now refer you, gentle reader, to exhibit B, the, 'superhero movie'. Or, if you prefer something less extreme, the, 'action flick'.
Action heroes and those superheroes that haven't been bitten by a radioactive camel, or injected with super Lucozade or something, the ones that are just highly trained humans, like Black Widow, or Batman, do amazing things. The things they do are most likely impossible but they are made to look just plausible enough for us to suspend disbelief, because they stick to things that humans can actually do. Run, jump, roll, kick, punch etc. Similarly, our cats don't fly, or snort lightning bolts, they just do cat things.
The actors who play those parts on screen have to go through months of rigorous training. I imagine that by now, most of them would be pretty handy in a fight. I doubt that any of them could actually take down twenty armed guys, using only a taser and a broken chair leg though. But their on screen alter egos can.
So, if Mr Tiddles and Snowball couldn't take down a supernatural monster, our cats, Priah and Riheow, can. Why? Because they are superheroes.
PS: Please do not, under any circumstances name your cats Mr Tiddles and Snowball. It's not kind, it's not dignified, they won't like it. They would probably prefer to fight a supernatural monster than answer to those names in public. 😊
Click here to check out the book on amazon...
