paul klee likes a temporary cat

Paul Klee (1879-1940) was attached to pretty much any and every school or artist you've heard of from turn of the 20th century Germany: member of the Blue Rider, buddy of Kandinsky's, taught at the Bauhaus.  His theoretical writings are rock basic reading for any student of modern art. Sounds intimidating, huh?  But the other thing you need to know about Klee is that he was a world unto himself, and capable of great, selfless nurture and affection.  Case in point: his cats.  He had several, adored them, and strangely enough never seems to have referred to them as "pets." To him they were beings of equal importance to himself.  You should read his diaries sometime.  Here's a snippet from his time in Italy, when his lodgings came complete with mouse removal:

"Today they took my cat away from me and I had to look on while it disappeared in a sack. I understood at last what words had not succeeded in making clear to me. It was a cat that had been borrowed to catch mice for a period of time. And I had already given away my heart."

The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918 (Felix Klee, Paul Klee: University of California Press, 1964), p. 74