Embracing the Ethics of a Feline Warrior

At six years old, Mittens recently joined the Blanchett household. Having come from a home with other pets, she was happy to be Nancy and Rick’s one-and-only. But she wanted to feel more confident, more like the hunter her instincts told her she was.

Nancy told her about the Tecosca Cormaic, otherwise known as the Instructions of Cormac Mac Airt.

“It’s an Old Irish wisdom text,” Nancy explained. In it, the legendary high king Cormac advises his son Cairbre on how to be a good man, an ethical warrior, and eventually, a wise king. “I think it could help you be a wise and ethical feline warrior.”

“But I’m not a king—or a queen,” Mittens mewed. “And I’m certainly not a warrior. I’m just a lowly rescue from the Humane Society.

“Oh, but you wear the crown in this house!” Nancy purred back, stroking her royal highness with a brush. Then she tempted Mittens with a twirly-bird toy. Mittens deigned to play for a few minutes, then shrugged off the toy.

“I’m a cat, not a warrior.”

With that, Mittens turned her large black body away from Nancy. After all, cats know if they can’t see you, you don’t exist.

Nancy, however, was not to be deterred. She sat down with Mittens and told her about the Cat Sídhe (which she pronounced as shee), otherwise known as the Celtic Cat.

“The Cat Sídhe is a fairy creature,” Nancy began. “She’s a big black cat with a white spot on her breast.” Mittens looked down at herself. She had to admit she was large—the humane society folks had called her obese. And she did have a large white spot on her chest—and little ones on her paws.

According to Celtic legend, Nancy continued, cat sídhes were magical creatures who were the symbol of fearsome warriors and guardians of the Otherworld. Independent, intuitive, and intelligent, cat sídhes have supernatural abilities that enable them to speak to humans, predict the weather, and foretell the future.

That got her attention. She knew that Nancy and Rick understood her. She had suggested to them that she had been an outdoor cat. For example, she could not help but see their pet bird as prey. They took that warning seriously. That same outdoor sensitivity had led Mittens to warn her new housemates that a major hurricane was brewing. Sure enough, a few days later the storm that would become Milton began lurking in the Gulf of Mexico, much like a jaguar ready to pounce.

Mittens had also predicted that her future with Nancy and Rick looked good. It was based on the number 3-3-3, a magical combination that meant she would acclimate to her new home in three stages: three days to transition from the shelter to a real home; three weeks to learn the daily routine; and three months to feel secure.

“I see,” Nancy said as she pulled up a copy of the Tecosca Cormaic on her tablet. Nancy related that the beloved and judicious Cormac ruled Ireland during the third century in peace and prosperity. Cairbre followed his father to the throne. “You may not be a king, Mittens, but like Cormac Mac Airt you have a lot to teach.”

The dialogue between the king and his son survived by oral tradition for centuries. First written in Old Irish in the ninth century, Tecosca Cormaic was translated into modern English by Kuno Meyer and published by the Royal Irish Academy. Todd Lecture Series. Volume 15, Dublin, Hodges Figgis & Co., in 1909.

Nancy then began to read the legendary set of questions and answers, through which Cormac taught his son how to live an honest, respectable, and successful life. The dialogue, sometimes referred to as the Code of Ethical Conduct for an Irish Warrior, is very simple.

“O King Cormac,” asks Cairbre, “What habits were with you in your youth?”

“Not hard to tell,” says the king. “I was a listener in woods, a gazer at stars, blind with secrets, silent in wilderness, talkative among many, stern in battle, ready to watch, gentle in friendship, a healer of the sick, strong toward the powerful, weak toward the strengthless, firm without anger, patient without strife, and affable without arrogance. For it is through these habits that the young become old and kingly warriors.”

Mittens nodded and closed her green eyes slowly. Opening them, she purred to acknowledge her supernatural abilities and responsibilities as a cat sídhe. Perched on the back of her favorite loveseat, she began to teach the humans the ethics of feline warriorhood, starting with being a listener and a gazer.