Literary Pets – Foss the Cat

Edward Lear often led a lonely life. He suffered from epilepsy, he never married, and he travelled frequently, creating the art works that were his major income. Of course, he also wrote poems and nonsense verse, such as the wonderful The Owl and the Pussycat.

Lear loved animals, but sharing his life with one was hard until he purchased a home in San Remo, Italy. It was then that Foss came into his life, a cat with half a tail (find out why he only had half a tail in my new book) who would not have won a beauty contest. Foss, who came to Lear as a kitten in 1873 (with a rather interesting Brontë connection), was a portly tabby, and Lear adored him, often mentioning his cat in letters to friends and regularly sketching him.

Foss was allowed free reign of the house; he rolled on Lear’s manuscripts and gave him companionship and inspiration.

Foss and Lear grew old together, and Foss died two months before Lear. His funeral was an elaborate one, with a grand headstone and much pomp and ceremony. Lear managed to convince himself that his pet was 31 years old, but Foss was in reality only half that age. This important literary cat today has his own Wikipedia page, and has even inspired a folk song.

I think of all the cats I wrote about in Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them, Foss was the one I came to love best. Do read Jenny Uglow’s brilliant biography of Lear, Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense, published in 2017. You learn so much about this kind, incredibly talented man and his troubled life. I was thrilled when Jenny Uglow wrote the fabulous words of praise which you can find on the back of my book.

I hope you enjoy getting to know Foss as much as I did when you read my book. Watch a short video about him here.