I have been re-watching "Kung Fu" (the classic early-1970s show with David Carridine) after having recently acquired them on DVD . . . one of my favorites.
The episode I saw last night was based around a character that owed somebody a cat -- evidently they were very rare and desirable as pets in the American West in the 1870s . . . one line was "a good cat like that can fetch fifty, maybe a hundred dollars!". What's that in today's money?
Not that I could ever put a price on the twelve years I've spent with Warren, or even his step-sisters Ellie and Miss Kitty (we have a Brady-Bunch household with our cats . . . Warren however keeps the girls far away from the living room). But it does seem that the companionship of a cat has historically either been highly treasured (worshiped by the Egyptians) or feared (i.e. the Witches' Familiar) . . . not a whole lot of in-between.
