Magic Cat

Her name was Pyewacket. Since I was four or five years old, I didn't question why this was her name. It simply was.

If I had bothered to ask, I'd have learned that “Pyewacket” was the name of the witch's familiar in the James Stewart movie Bell, Book And Candle. I didn't learn this until I was 52 years old, when my wife looked it up, and I discovered that our Siamese cat looked exactly like the one in the movie. Pyewacket was also one of the names of a witch's familiar from the Salem witch trials (it was an imp rather than a cat in 1644 ). If I'd had a middle-aged sense of humor when I was five, the idea that my family would have named anything after a witch's familiar would have sent me into hilarities of irony - you will never meet a family as Baptist as we are.

It turns out that the cat was magic, though; and I remember the night I learned that she had mystic powers.

I had looked everywhere for Pyewacket, and I couldn't find her anywhere. She had disappeared. This, of course, is perfectly normal behavior for a cat; and nothing to be remarked upon, so I headed off to take a bath. After I had my bath, I opened the door to the linen closet to toss in my towel, and discovered her laying on top of the dirty clothes. She was cleaning up a brand-new litter of kittens. I could not imagine where those had come from. She had somehow created them out of thin air!

I was very impressed by this, and continue to be.

Jack “The Amazing Mumford” Parker