Wall of Cats

The moment I saw “Sabo Tabby,” by Jesse Jarldane, I knew I had to have it for my Wall of Cats.

Not just because the intricate, hand-cut work was beautiful, which it was. For me, the Sabo Tabby has a deeper meaning. Two deeper meanings, as a matter of fact.

These are hard times. For many of us, we feel the intense drive to right the wrongs we see perverting the course of justice every single day. Jarldane’s “Sabo Tabby” perfectly represents everything I’m feeling now. In the center is a black cat with arched back, fuzzed tail, and mouth in a hiss, the Sabo Tabby, a onetime symbol of radical unionism. In contrast, Peace, Love, Truth, Hope are printed to the four sides. As an old white woman with health issues, there are limits to my ability to save the world. This image reminds me I do not have to do it alone.

“Sabo Tabby,” by Jesse Jarldane

The print’s second meaning is more personal. I used the Sabo Tabby symbol in one of my books and therefore had to do research on its origins. I love research. I learn so much I never would have otherwise known. (I hope no one looks at my browsing history though. They would certainly suspect me of nefarious dealings!)

Here is how the Sabo Tabby entered into my cozy mystery, Cat Café.

Cat Café, a Crazy Cat Lady Cozy Mystery #5

Winner of the World’s Best Cat Litter-Ary Award for an “outstanding novel, short story, poem, or radio/television dramatic script which portrays cats and cat ownership in a positive way”

A body is discovered in the cat café, and all the black cats are missing!

The Crazy Cat Lady mystery series features Lynley Cannon, a sixty-something cat shelter volunteer who finds more trouble than a cat in catnip. In Cat Café, Lynley’s mother Carol recalls how, back in 1950 when she was just seventeen, her little group of friends was quite enamored by the black cat symbol. They even referred to themselves as the Black Cat Gang. Though they enjoyed talking about politics, they were innocent, enjoying trips to the lake and listening to records on a battery-run record player.

Here is how Carol described their exploits way back when:

“Sometimes we’d drive off into the boonies in Rory’s dad’s work truck—he was a delivery driver for Copeland Lumber—you know, the one with the black cat logo? We’d drink beer and banter. We thought of ourselves as a sort of a club, or a gang. We even had a name. Can you guess what we were called?”

“Does it have to do with a cat?” asked Lynley.

Carol laughed. “Terrance was the know-it-all of the group, what you might today call a geek—or is it a nerd? I get the two mixed up. He would have loved the internet if he’d had it back then. As it was, he practically lived at the library, the Google of the olden days.”

Carol leaned back into the brocade couch cushions and continued.

“Terrance had read that the Copeland Cat was derived from the mascot of the IWW, Industrial Workers’ of the World. The mascot cat, sometimes referred to as the ‘Sabo Tabby’, had originally been code for sabotage, wildcat strikes, anarchy, disorder, and chaos among the labor force. We, being a batch of precocious kids who considered ourselves somewhat on the rebellious side, liked the idea that our vehicle was a secret symbol of anarchy, so we began calling ourselves the Black Cats. Of course later on I found out that the Copeland logo had nothing to do with anarchy—it was the emblem of the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo, a fraternal organization whose members were involved with the forest products industry. The anarchists did have a black cat logo, but it was slightly different. The anarchist tail is fluffed out, where the Hoo-Hoo’s tail is curled. I can see how one might make the error.”

“You never told me you were a rebel,” Lynley teased her mother.

“And let you think you could get away with being one yourself?” Carol exclaimed. “You were enough of a free-thinker as it was without any influence from me.”

“Well, it sounds like good fun in any case.”

Carol gave a short laugh, then her face hardened. “I don’t remember how it started, but I’ll never forget what happened in the end…”

Be sure to check out more cat are by Jesse Jarldane. Other artists displayed on my Wall of Cats are Leslie Cobb, Bernadettee, Quint the artist cat, El Gato Gomez, The Dancing Cat, Cataround Designs. There are several I don’t know, as well as photographs taken by me ad friends. For more information, ask in the comments and I will answer as best as I can.