The last time you heard from Trixie, and the time before that you heard from Tillie, and both times you heard the phrase “let the cat out of the bag.” No, they were not talking about Mr. Squee in a bag (as if you ever could keep him in a bag!) but they were talking about telling a secret. The secret is that we Whimsies love sweets, and I think my two friends have given you plenty of information about that at the moment, so I’m not going to belabor the point.
But I have been thinking most seriously about that phrase “let the cat out of the bag.” It’s a funny saying. Nobody really knows what it means, but it probably has something to do with this: years ago, when people would go to a market to buy a live piglet (I guess to take home and kill and eat??), the seller would put that piglet in a bag for them to take home, 
but sometimes, instead of actually giving them a piglet, they would put a cat in the bag instead. When they got home and opened the bag, a cat would jump out, not a piglet, and then the buyer would realize that they had been cheated. So the thinking is that “let the cat out of the bag” means a secret has been revealed. But if you believe this story, “let the cat out of the bag” could just as easily mean realizing that you’ve been cheated. So this story doesn’t really hold together for me.
But anyway….
That’s not what I came here to talk about. I’m thinking more in terms of CATS than secrets or cheating, and I realized that it’s no secret that here in Whimsieville we LOVE cats! Of course we love Mr. Squee, his is such a fine fellow, and a great Dogcatcher (the fact that he’s never actually gotten anywhere near having to catch a dog is a great testament to how well he does his job of keeping them away…) but Mr. Squee is not the only cat in 
Whimsieville, oh no! There are many cats here…Mr. Squee just happens to be the only live, actual cat. But as we roam around, there are so many other whimsical suggestions of cats, and I’m here today to share just a few of those with you.
Let’s start right here with something that Miss Chrissy tells me is “folk art.” She tells me she’s had this bit of folk art for so long, she doesn’t even remember now where she got it. He’s a wooden cat, sitting on a swing, under a bright yellow star. Years ago there was this very famous song called Swinging On A Star, so I’m imagining that’s what the folk artist is trying to evoke with this piece. This cat has absolutely no purpose in life whatsoever, except to hang on the door and swing on the star, and look so cute doing it. And that’s fine. Some art is like that.
Tillie however, has found another cat in Whimsieville that does have a purpose! On Labor Dar, while she was working at the desk, helping Miss Chrissy organize her CD collection, Tillie noticed this little cermaic cat who seems quite happy to hold pencils. You can tell he’s happy because of the big smile on his face, and doesn’t he just look adorable with all those brightly colored pencils wrapped up in his tail? This cat came to Whimsieville via The Thrift Store Boutique. Of course, real cats are never green with purple stripes, but doesn’t this little guy look great against the green walls? Trixie warns us that green and purple are the colors of Marvel villains, but it’s hard to believe this cat would have even the slightest villainous streak in him. He’s just so happy he has a job to do.
And here’s another cat that has a job to do. Trixie has found this much more appropriately colored fellow in orange and black, with a handsome white moustache, made in India of a soft, lightweight paper mache type material. He also looks quite content, perhaps because he knows he is hiding a secret—and a very important secret! Have you ever wanted to clip your socks together so they don’t get lost in the washing machine? Or perhaps you have a rip or tear in your clothing and a safety pin would be just the thing to hold it all together until you can get a needle and thread? If so, and no safety pins are available, life can become most miserable.
But have no fear! This rotund little fellow will come to your rescue, because when you open him up, his innards are simply filled with safety pins of all sizes! On the outside, he looks like an ordinary paper mache cat, but on the inside, he has just what you need! So in a way, Trixie says, he’s a superhero with a secret identity.
Now, that’s not letting the cat out of the bag, but it is letting the secret out of the cat!
Oh, we could show you more, much more, and someday I’ll come back again to show off some of the other cats here in Whimsieville, but for right now, take a gander of us sitting here under our Wall of Cats! Oh, what fun! Oh, how whimsical! Could there possibly be a more delightful artistic subject than the adorable, inscrutable and elegant cat?
