February 23, 1821

Who could not love John Keats (October 31, 1795 to February 23,1821)? Well, besides T. S. Eliot. Keats mixed that great literary competency shared by many of the literate, in those days, with a florid genius. Leigh Hunt was one of the first to recognize Keats' talent. Hunt introduced him to John Reynolds, another aspiring writer. Keats wrote the below, on January 16, 1818. His generation treated cats as more useful, than decorative. You can see what this means in his only poem that mentions cats. Light verse -- "To Mrs. Reynolds Cat"

Cat! who hast passed thy grand climacteric,

How many mice and rats hast in thy days

Destroyed? How many tit-bits stolen? Gaze

With those bright languid segments green, and prick

Those velvet ears - but prithee do not stick

Thy latent talons in me, and up-raise

Thy gentle mew, and tell me all thy frays

Of fish and mice, and rats and tender chick.

Nay, look not down, nor lick thy dainty wrists -

For all thy wheezy asthma, and for all

Thy tail's tip is nicked off, and though the fists

Of many a maid have given thee many a maul,

Still is that fur as soft as when the lists

In youth thou enteredst on glass-bottled wall. 

We know this cat.  Mrs. Reynolds was the mother of his friend, John Reynolds.