Remembering Morris the Cat
And news about my Substack account.
Creative Commons: Crawford Brian
Before talking about Morris, I thought I give you somewhat of an update about what I’m going to be doing on Substack. You will see more articles like this on Substack. This is more of what I generally do on Medium. There will still be some cartoons, but you will see a variety of primary humor pieces. Hope you like them, and by all means subscribe and tell your friends.
Pets can have a tremendous impact on us. I’ve featured our two dogs in shameless plugs (not pugs) to get more readership interaction. I do that because many of us have a soft spot in our hearts for animals. I often look back at old TV shows, movies and actors, but decided to go one step further today. I’ll take a look at an animal. Morris the Cat. Of course, he was also an award-winning actor and great spokes cat.
The plaque in the picture gives a nice overview of Morris’ accomplishments, but we’ll take a little deeper dive into at least one of his lives. He kept his other eight lives private. And here we go.
1: Before fame and fortune, Morris had a near death experience.
He was only 20 minutes away from being put to sleep before being rescued. Morris went on to star in The Long Goodbye along with Elliott Gould. Actually, The Long Goodbye sounds like another euphemism for being put to sleep.
2: Morris also starred with Burt Reynolds and Dyan Cannon in “Shamus.”
While “starred” might seem to be a strong word, Morris was the star in any endeavor he was involved in.
3: In 1983 Time Magazine called him “The Feline Burt Reynolds.”
But, unlike Burt, Morris didn’t pose nude in a magazine to boost his career. He resisted the efforts of Playcat to pose nude as a centerfold. Hold on, being told Playcat wasn’t a thing. Well, if it had been a thing, Morris would have said no.
4: Morris made his acting debut in a mattress commercial.
After all, who would know more about sleeping than a cat?
5: He was proclaimed as, “the Clark Gable of cats” by the art director of the 9Lives commercials when auditioned for the part.
Like Clark, Morris was a great actor, and also as a cat, like Clark, he didn’t give a, well you know what.
6: Morris ran for the President of the United States in 1988 and 1992.
In 1988 he lost to George H. W. Bush and in 1992 he lost to Bill Clinton. Ironically, it was Clinton who was accused of catting around.
7: Before he became Morris, he was a shelter cat known as “Lucky.”
But as Morris would tell you, his success wasn’t a matter of luck. It was the result of talent and charisma.
8: There have been four Morrises. When the first Morris died it caused quite a stir.
He died at the age of 17 in 1978. 9Lives got inquiries from all as to where to send flowers. His obituary ran in newspapers worldwide, and a funeral home offered to send a tiny coffin. Morris accomplished more in one of his lives than most cats can in all nine of theirs.
9: Originally, Bob Martwick played a key role in the selection and training of Morris.
Or did Morris train and select Bob Martwick?
10: Though he has had an amazing career, he isn’t stuck in the past.
He’s active on social media. And he continues to live his best life.
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