this article about cats made my day. from life magazine, 1946. some of my favourite bits:

perhaps half of all the cats, have semipermanent homes in barns, stables, factories, office buildings, restaurants, stores, prisons, churches and ships. the submerged remainder, the unorganized and unorganizable proletariat of the cat world, roam the back alleys, woods and deserts and do the best they can.

cats had an especially good press during the war, in which many of them took a helpful part … a few gifted cats wore uniforms and sold war bonds or bought bonds from their own bank accounts.

some cats, to paraphrase thoreau, lead lives of quiet desparation, but many others have a thoroughly good time and take a lively part in human affairs.

… favorable publicity like this is important to cats, which prefer to live on good terms with human beings whenever possible.

… “only relatively well-to-do cats have these”