Chico and the Man
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Chico the cat describes the life of his "best friend", Pope Benedict, in an authorised biography for children released this week.
"Dear Children, here you will find a biography that is different to others because it is told by a cat and it is not every day a cat can consider the Holy Father his friend and sit down to write his life story," the Pope's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, says in the foreword.
"Chico and Joseph -- A Cat Recounts the Life of Pope Benedict XVI" is narrated by Chico who took up with the Pope in his native Germany when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The illustrated 44-page book is written by Italian author Jeanne Perego and set mostly in Germany in the years before Benedict was elected in April 2005.
Chico is a real cat who belongs to a German couple in the German city of Pentling, where the Pope lived until he moved to Rome in 1981. The couple are caretakers of the house where Ratzinger had hoped to retire had he not been elected Pope.
Chico tells the story of the life of "my best friend" from his birth in Germany in 1927, through his days as a young man, priest, bishop and cardinal. It ends with his election as Pope on April 19, 2005.
Wow that is one old cat!
Chico recounts how each time then Cardinal Ratzinger returned to Germany for a vacation, the cat would run into his house and sit on his lap as he played the piano.
One Christmas, when the future pope tried to put the cat out of the house "I misbehaved" and scratched him. "He forgave me right away but told me: 'Don't do it again".
Known as 
Since 1927 is indeed a very long life for a cat. Maybe this cat took all nine lives to write the story?
Peace,
--Peter
Or maybe he is the ancestor of the present cat... cats are very prolific.
Augh!
I just posted on this, using a couple of the same jokes. Then came here.
Can we take it as great minds thinking alike rather than plagiarism?
I mean, there's no need to get catty about it or anything.
:)
Maybe Chico heard the earlier parts from Joseph Ratzinger's previous cat, who heard them from the previous cat, who heard them from.... hee hee
I want a copy!
You're all wrong.
You see, Chico the cat didn't actually witness any of this, although he currently knows the Holy Father, most of what is in the book has come from two sources. The first source, M, is claimed to be a manuscript by a cat that, while also not the Pope's cat, was a disciple of the Pope's cat. This source will eventually turn up as a book about the Pope and a cat in its own right.
The second source, Q, has yet to be identified, but the varying natures of the various stories or "parables" in the Chico book definitely point to such a source.
But where can we get this wonderful book? -- I refer, of course, to "Chico and Joseph," not to the M and Q documents mentioned by Keith. ;)
.
Great...now that freaking Jose Feliciano theme song will run through my head all night, alternating with Jack Albertson's warbling "I've got a Golden Ticket!"