A
blog post from Mimi Matthews is an overview of cases from the Victorian
era of pets defending a woman from spousal abuse. It opens with the
trial of George Amey, who assaulted his estranged wife, Isabella. George
no longer lived with Isabella, but visited her in the home he had left,
where she lived with her cat Topsy. An altercation began, and George
threw Isabella down and started to strangle her.
George
might have killed Isabella if not for Topsy’s sudden—and rather
unexpected—intervention. Upon seeing her mistress being ill-used, the
faithful cat sprang into action. As the Illustrated Police News relates:
“The wife told the warrant-officer Roskelly that while on the ground
and screaming, a favorite cat, named Topsy, suddenly sprang on her
husband and fastened her claws in his eyes and her teeth in his face.
Her husband could not tear the cat away, and he was obliged to implore
her to take the cat from him to save his life.”
George was arrested, charged, and ultimately sentenced to prison for one month.
This is just the first of
three cases that explain why women alone tend to become cat ladies or dog ladies. Although, in one case, it was the man's own dog that prevented him from killing his wife.
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