Story Time by the Sunny Window

About this drawing

Any princess reading with cat is carrying on a partnership that goes back a long way, because cats were once the best security a library could hire. Medieval books were written on animal skin, and to a hungry mouse a shelf of them looked a lot like a buffet.

Monasteries solved the problem with four paws. Cats patrolled the rooms where monks copied texts by hand, and over time they became company as well as pest control. Around the ninth century, an Irish monk wrote a charming poem called Pangur Bán about his white cat. He cheerfully compares his own hunt for words with the cat's hunt for mice, and each of them is happy at his work.

Cats were not always ideal coworkers, though. Researchers have found paw prints across the pages of old manuscripts, left when a curious feline strolled over wet ink. You can almost hear the groaning scribe.

The job still exists in a way. Museums and palaces have long kept cats to hold down the rodent population, and plenty of American bookstores and small-town libraries have a resident cat with loyal fans of its own. Cats like quiet rooms and warm spots, which may explain the whole arrangement. If you have ever tried reading with one nearby, you know the open book is theirs now.

• princesses
• cats
• reading
• books