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Honest Abe and His Cats
A big man’s love for his fluffy feline friends
When asked once by a journalist what President Abraham Lincoln’s hobbies were, his wife Mary Todd Lincoln had an emphatic, one word response: “Cats!”
Most people think of Abraham Lincoln posing stiffly for photographs, looking very steadfast and at times very somber; as well he might, with the American Civil War raging across the country during his first term of office. It is hard to think of this tall, gangly and serious man taking time to play with kittens.
Nonetheless, Lincoln once made this tongue-in-cheek comment about the ubiquity of cats: “No matter how much cats fight, there always seems to be plenty of kittens.”
Although Lincoln is well known for his quick wit and funny stories, his softer side was very much in evidence, when touring a civil war battlefield, he spotted several kittens playing. Scooping them up and carefully placing them on his lap, Lincoln, whom many referred to as Honest Abe, commented tenderly, “Kitties, thank God you are cats, and can’t understand the terrible strife that is going on.”
As in so many cat-centric households, Lincoln’s two pet cats named Tabby and Dixie pretty much had things their own way. There are stories of the Lincoln family’s cats eating at the table, including at formal dinners. When it was pointed out that one of the cats was being fed from a very expensive utensil , Lincoln is said to have replied tartly, “If that gold fork was good enough for Buchanan, it is good enough for Tabby.”
It should be noted that James Buchanan was the president directly preceding Lincoln and was a member of the opposing political party!
