A friend writes:
I bought a cat calendar that featured a quote from you, so I had to write. You said: “Life with a cat is in certain ways a one-sided proposition. Cats are not educable; humans are. Moreover, cats know this.”
This e-mail amazed me. It sounds very much like something I might have said—I lived with cats for two decades, after all—but I have no memory whatsoever of writing any such thing.
I Googled my alleged quote and found it in several places on the Web, unsourced in all cases, though one person tacked on an additional, equally plausible-sounding sentence: “If you’re not willing to humor them, you might as well stick to dogs.” That one doesn’t ring any bells, either. Is it the fate of overly prolific authors to forget their past utterances as they lurch into middle age? Have I said other, comparably pithy things that have vanished no less irretrievably into the ether?
Would that I had time to get to the bottom of this puzzle, but I don’t, for I’ve got to spend the next couple of hours prepping for today’s interview with Ennio Morricone. If anyone out there can tell me where and when I paid this backhanded tribute to the ineducability of Felis domesticus, I’d appreciate hearing from you….