Foss

Foss was the cherished cat of Edward Lear, the English artist and poet famous for his nonsense verse, including "The Owl and the Pussycat". A tabby with a curiously short, stumpy tail — family legend held that a servant had docked it to stop him straying — Foss lived with Lear for some seventeen years and became a constant presence in his life and art. Lear adored him, filling letters and sketchbooks with affectionate, comical drawings of "the Foss" in various poses: Foss rampant, Foss couchant, Foss dancing, Foss as a teapot. So devoted was Lear that, when he built a new villa in San Remo, Italy, he had it constructed as an exact replica of his previous home so that Foss would not be unsettled by the move. When Foss died in 1887 he was buried in the garden with a solemn headstone; Lear himself died only a few months later. The little cat's chubby, short-tailed silhouette survives in Lear's drawings as one of the most charming records of a writer's love for his pet.