12 Famous Pet Owners in History and Their Stories

A reality that doesn’t get much place in history books: behind great wars, revolutions and works of art there was always a pet. A cat as an emperor’s favorite, a scientist’s dog, a writer’s parrot — these friendships shaped their owners’ creativity and mood. Here are 12 famous pet owners in history that should not be forgotten and the stories they lived with them.

1Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun and His Lion Friend.

Reliefs found in young Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb show him hunting with a domesticated lion. In Ancient Egypt cats were identified with goddess Bastet; Abyssinian cats with golden collars in pharaonic family homes were mummified and buried. When a cat died in an Egyptian family, mourning was held, eyebrows shaved. Killing a cat was a crime serious enough to require death penalty.

2Napoleon Bonaparte and His Wife’s Parrot.

Napoleon was actually afraid of cats — this phobia called ailurophobia bothered him throughout his life. But his wife Josephine’s parrot named “Iago” was the star of the palace. Remaining from Josephine’s childhood in Martinique, this parrot spoke local Creole language alongside French. When Napoleon was sent into exile, rumors spread that Josephine taught the parrot secret messages to her husband.

3Sir Isaac Newton and His Dog Diamond.

There’s a legendary story that Newton, the discoverer of gravity, had his dog Diamond knock over a candle on his desk one day, burning years of work. Newton supposedly said only “Diamond, Diamond, you don’t know the harm you’ve done.” Although the historical accuracy of the story is debated, Newton’s fondness for dogs is known. Newton is also remembered as the inventor of cutting two different-sized holes in the door for his cats.

4Florence Nightingale and Her 60 Cats.

Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, lived with approximately 60 cats throughout her life. In letters she wrote to her nurses, she frequently mentioned her cats — cats with names like “Bismarck” and “Gladstone” were beside her while writing Crimean War memoirs. Once a cat dipped its paw in ink onto one of her letters; Nightingale added a note and sent the letter as is.

5Mark Twain and His 19 Cats.

Twain, who wrote “A home without a cat may be perfect, but how can you prove that perfection?” shared a home with 19 cats throughout his life. Gave creative names like Bambino, Sackcloth, Ashes, Blatherskite. A dry humorist, Twain said about cats not coming when called “if it could be raised like a dog, it would lift man but lower the cat.”

6Nikola Tesla and His Cat Macak.

Tesla’s first encounter with electromagnetism came from the static electricity he felt while petting his cat Macak’s fur when he was three years old. He told this memory in his memoirs years later: “While trying to understand what nature is, I asked my father, he told me ‘this is electricity’.” Macak is one of the most influential cats in science history — perhaps the one who gave the first clue to the codes of modern electricity.

7Freud and His Chow Chow Jofi.

Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, was inseparable from his Chow Chow dog Jofi in his last years. He kept Jofi in his room during therapy sessions — observed that the dog’s approach, distance, growling helped read patient’s emotional state. Today, animal-assisted therapy field can be said to have been born from this observation Freud started with Jofi.

8Salvador Dalí and His Wild Margay Cat.

Surrealist painter Dalí’s pet was a margay wild cat named “Babou” — not a house cat, a real wild one. He took it to luxury restaurants in New York with a leash, sat it on the table, told his wife when asked “This is just a painted cat.” Once when it caused panic in Manhattan, Dalí’s explanation was: “I painted his cat by hand so the poses for art aren’t ruined.” It was a pure surrealist move.

9Winston Churchill and His Cat Jock.

British Prime Minister Churchill had an orange cat named Jock — was beside him at every meeting, every meal, every Cabinet session. Churchill, who refused to sit at meal without Jock, made sure the cat came to the table. When Churchill passed away, in his will he stipulated that an orange cat named “Jock” should always be present at his estate. Today Jock VI still lives at Chartwell Mansion.

10Ernest Hemingway and His Six-Toed Cats.

The cat “Snow White” gifted to Hemingway by a captain was a “polydactyl” or six-toed cat. This genetic feature passed to descendants and today over 60 six-toed cats still live at Hemingway Museum in Key West, all descendants of Snow White. Hemingway made it tradition to give them artist and writer names like Fitzgerald, Picasso.

11Queen Victoria and Her Pomeranians.

Queen Victoria of England is the person who created today’s small size of Pomeranian breed. At that time Pomeranians were 14-kilo big dogs; when Victoria fell in love with a smaller-sized Pomeranian named “Marco,” she encouraged production of small lines. Within 50 years, the breed dropped to today’s 3-kilo toy size. When Victoria died, a Pomeranian named Turi was at the foot of her bed.

12Atatürk and His Dog Foks.

The dog named “Foks” that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk raised at Çankaya Mansion was a silent witness of the early years of the Turkish republic. On nights Gazi came home tired, Foks lay at his feet, would bark to greet foreign guests, and would prick up his ears as if listening to Gazi’s speech. When Foks died, he was buried in the mansion garden. Atatürk’s love for animals led to Turkey’s first Animal Protection Law in 1928.

In final analysis,

History often forgets the silent friends standing behind great people. But the truth is: without Tesla’s cat, the first curiosity about electricity might not have come; without Freud’s Jofi, animal-assisted therapy might not have been born; without Atatürk’s Foks, this country’s animal rights journey might have started a bit later. A pet is not just a friend; it’s a force that shapes life.