Cats

Cats appear frequently throughout Within the Wires seasons 2 and 3 and are closely associated with some of the main characters.

## Notable Cats

### Connie

In August 1953, Michael Witten and his wife Vivienne found an injured cat. On the 13th, Michael then asked his secretary, Amy, to make an appointment with a vet, Dr. Jefferson, to get the cat "repaired" and spayed. He also asked Amy to pick up 30cm squared of patterned orange fabric and maroon or violet thread, which was to be folded into a bandanna and embroidered with the name "Constance" in cursive script.

On November 26, Michael inquired about the effects of declawing cats, as there had been some damage to an antique tapestry recovered from Belgium during the Reckoning. He did not want to make the cat unhappy, but also did not want to lose the "rare preserve" of a world that was mostly lost. He also asked if there was a way to stop hairballs from happening, as although Vivienne loved Constance, she was going to ruin their rug.

On March 23, 1954 Michael and Vivienne's home was broken into and the door was left unlocked. They found nothing missing, except Constance, who usually waited for them to get home in her bed or by her food dish. They searched everywhere, and called the neighbours (who didn't pick up, despite their lights being on), but didn't find her.

At 11pm, unable to sleep, they heard someone at the front door, but Michael saw no-one when he went to look. He then heard Connie clawing at the front door and let her in, and she went straight to her cat bed. It was then they noticed that Connie was bleeding, and her entire left ear was missing, as if it had been cut off with a pair of scissors. Michael believed this was a threat by the smoking men in suits, on behalf of Karen Roberts.

On March 29, Michael attempted to reassure himself and Amy that nothing was wrong, Connie had only got in a catfight with another cat and his paranoia had got the better of him. He also wrote a letter to Vishwathi Ramadoss explaining that he had been made to feel uneasy on behalf of himself, his wife, and his cat. Later that day, Ramadoss revealed that she was backing Karen Roberts instead of him, and he received a box of previously "missing" files which had been altered to show his name instead of hers. In a letter from 1950, instructions for intimidation read: “If they have a pet, don’t kill it but wound it. Wound it in a way that lets them know they’re being watched.”

After more ominous break-ins, Vivienne decided to leave the house and stay at a hotel. Michael told her she could not take the cat with her as it would be too conspicuous, and she snapped at him. He also believed that the men in suits were not finished with him, and would continue to harass Vivi and take apart Connie "one extremity at a time." He did not understand why this was, as they already had everything they needed from him. After the events that transpired, Connie did not trust strangers and often hid from them.

In June of 1961, Bernice Jones sent Michael and Vivienne a commissioned oil painting that depicted Connie and "Mom" sitting in a chair. Vivienne was wearing a constrained smile, as if holding back a laugh, and Connie looked happy and safe, melting into her lap "like a candle." Michael asked his secretary, Timothy, to hang the painting above his desk.

### "Self-Portrait with Cat"

Roimata Mangakāhia discussed the painting "Self-Portrait with Cat" by Claudia Atieno at the Tate Modern Remembrance Wing exhibit in 1971. Roimata claimed that Claudia was reluctant to talk about this painting, but also noted that she seemed strangely incapable of answering even simple questions about it. When asked about the cat, Claudia simply said she had never owned one, despite the affection and familiarity that the painting seemed to depict according to Roimata's eye. She said that she thought Claudia would like a cat, and seemed fairly confident in this judgement despite only knowing her for a short period of time. She even considered taking a cat with her when she next visited her in the Cornwall House.

Another rendition of seemingly the same subject and composition was discussed by Roimata two years later, at the Ulster Museum. This version of "Self Portrait with Cat" was believed to have been painted in 1972, and was unfinished. In the painting, Claudia had the same wry smile, eyes fixed on something distant, but her face was markedly older, as was the calico cat's. They were sitting on a wicker chair in the enclosed patio, with the cliffs below them. The light coming through the window was orange; a sunset. Standing on the cliffs behind the woman was a figure. In Roimata's commentary, she implied that the eyes of the woman depicted did not suggest that the cat is not her own, despite Claudia's claims. The painting was apparently donated to the museum by Pavel Zubov after he discovered it in his home.

The following references content that only appeared in the official transcripts available on Patreon and may not be canon. *Learn More*

According to Roimata, the cat in the second rendition of "Self-Portrait with Cat" was named Matryoshka. She was a haggard stray who appeared on the island one day, and none of them (Claudia, Roimata, or Pavel) could figure out how she had got there, as it was impossible for her to have swum from the mainland and the motorboat was too small for her to stow away on. She was named Matryoshka because when Pavel first found her, she was pregnant. It is unknown what happened to Matryoshka or her kittens after the Cornwall House was abandonned.

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#### Roimata's rendition

In 1974, Roimata created a painting which she names "Claudia Atieno with Cat." Talking about the painting in 1986, Hester Wells was unsure if Roimata started the painting before Claudia's disappearance, or if it was wholly from memory. Claudia's face was rendered realistically, with long braids and narrow lips. However below that, her body was shapeless under an iridescent blouse. The cat itself "look[ed] more like a pile of candles melting down Atieno’s spiralling legs."

Hester had met Roimata once for an interview in 1978, and asked her about the painting. Roimata was clearly reluctant to talk about Claudia, but said that since she had denied ever painting the original, she decided she would bring it into the world herself. She added after a long pause that Claudia hated cats, and Roimata hated her for it. In 1986, Hester asks the listener to look at "the semblance of a cat on the semblance of a lap in this painting, and tell yourself what it means to love something."

In 1985, after Roimata's death, Hester visited her house, which had fallen into disrepair. All she found there was a cat, which she attempted to feed. It drew blood and ran away.

### Other cats

In the audio guide for a "Reflections" exhibit at the Sree Chitra Art Gallery in 1979, Roimata briefly mentioned a cat in her introduction. She said that humanity had a constant search to see ourselves in nature, such as "in the cat that defies its stars to become best friends with a dog." She said that anthropomorphism was often a comfort to us, no matter how absurd it really was. This exhibit also featured Roimata's own self-portrait.

At the hospital Clíodhna Byrne trained in, there was a doctor who used to say "Pain only hides in housecats." Once, behind a record shop, Clíodhna and her partner Siobhán found a kitten, presumed stray, that Siobhán wanted to adopt. Clíodhna objected, largely on the grounds that she would be the one who ended up looking after it, because Siobhán didn't know how and wouldn't trouble herself to learn.

## Additional info

* Claudia's denial of painting "Self-Portrait with Cat" could have been interpreted incorrectly by Roimata - if the painting is instead of Vivienne Torrance and Constance, her statement that she has never painted a self-portrait with a cat would have been factual.
	+ Her reluctance to talk about the painting or do anything to clear up the confusion could have been to do with the possibility that Claudia and Vivienne were identical, and therefore likely twin sisters who were forbidden from having any contact with each other.

## References

1. ↑ Season 3, Reel #2: August 13, 1953
2. ↑ Season 3, Reel #3: November 26, 1953
3. ↑ Season 3, Reel #6: March 24, 1954
4. ↑ Season 2, Reel #7: March 29, 1954
5. ↑ Season 3, Reel #8: April 20, 1954
6. ↑ Season 3, Reel #10: June 21, 1961
7. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #1: Tate Modern (1971)
8. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #2: Ulster Museum (1973)
9. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #2: Ulster Museum (1973)/Transcript
10. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #10: Karikari Contemporary Gallery (1986)
11. ↑ Season 2, Cassette 7: Sree Chitra Art Gallery (1979)
12. ↑ Season 6, Episode #3: Wednesday 24 October 1973