The Wonderful Gay Purr-ee

I have lots of animals on the farm as you know, including 18 cats (10 domestic and 8 feral). I'm going on record here to say the domestic ones are desexed or in the process of getting desexed, and I am gradually catching the wild ones for the same purpose with the cages lent by the local chapter of the Animal Welfare League. One of the wonders of having animals is getting to know their distinct personalities, idiosyncrasies and behaviour. I watch the way they walk and move in a way an animator might watch animals to embody their essence in drawings. As a child I remember the flouncy provocative walk of Peg, the dog (voiced by Peggy Lee) in Disney's Lady and the Tramp.  I see a similar movement in our big white cat Snow, who puts one paw in front of the other with a little side to side hip tilt that makes him look like the feline version of a runway model. 

I got thinking about other animated films with animals as their leading characters – The Lion King and The Aristocats are obvious ones. And then I remembered a film I had seen as a kid on various leisurely Sunday afternoons before sports took over our channels on the weekends. It was called Gay Purr-ee – it was about a farm cat called Mewsette (voiced by Judy Garland) who is bored of the countryside and is lured by the promise of romance and adventure to Paris. The male cat Jaune Tome (voice by Robert Goulet) who loves her, follows and ultimately saves her from self destruction as she is unwittingly groomed by a villainous con-cat and a madam to become a courtesan for a rich American cat. Thought you might want to take a look (also check out other clips on YouTube). In the meantime, I'm going to hunt it up for Christmas for myself and Jozef ... please don't tell him!