Cat with hat

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Katzen mit Hut is a children's book by the author couple Simon and Desi Ruge and was published in 1980 by Beltz & Gelberg .

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The hat cat is a cat that walks on two legs and likes to wear large hats. She knows how to assert herself in every situation through a skillful mixture of friendliness, energetic demeanor, feminine charm and a small portion of cheek and win over people.

It ends up more by chance in the sleepy town of Stackeln an der Kruke . While walking, they discovered in the prune Allee an old, empty but fully furnished house. She likes it so much that she decides to move in and start a house community. Soon after moving in, she clashes with the owner of the house, the rich brewery owner Egon Maulwisch, who has an unhappy childhood in this house. First he wants to throw the cat out, but before he knows it, she has won him with her special kind and the lease is signed.

The cat's first roommates will soon be found:

  • The Dudelhuhn Marianne Dudel, a chicken that likes to chat, play cards and lay an egg every day.
  • Captain Knaak, a dog that has gone to sea, takes care of minor repairs in the house and likes to get lost in extravagant tales of his time at sea (potentially seaman's thread ).

From then on, the cat begins to collect "family members" as a housemother and good soul . Sometimes she finds them, sometimes they run to the community. Everyone finds their place in the house and is accepted by others with all their peculiarities.

  • The zapper geck, a cheeky little reptile of an unspecified species with a horn on its nose.
  • The Brummsel, a child-sized bumblebee-like insect with a penchant for pudding.
  • Baby Hübner, a music-loving wild boar child who moves into the piano room of the house and later wants to go to the opera.
  • The Stolpervogel, a croaking, polite, constantly stumbling wader who becomes the receptionist of the house.
  • The twin brothers Erbsenstein, two ingenious inventors with stiff hats that you often whistle but almost never hear speak. They set up their workshop in the basement of the house.
  • The llama, a well-behaved, somewhat simple-minded animal that often falls asleep and then walks backwards in its sleep.
  • The hundred feet, a very light-shy, nocturnal creature who moves into the darkened living room of the house with his collection of burned out light bulbs.

In episodes the length of a chapter, the book describes the bizarre life of this “family” of eccentrics and foundlings, as well as their arguments with the choleric homeowner Maulwisch, who is, however, “tamed” step by step by the friendliness of the hat cat.

About the book

The story of the cat with a hat has sold around 70,000 times. The book teaches the reader how an intact family can function. It draws on the ideas of the alternative squatter scene of the 1970s. The cat sees it as its task to revive the empty house and to make it a home for problem children of society: eccentric people who are offended by their eccentric nature and are not accepted. The cat understands these characteristics as special abilities that only require the right support. By creating a social framework in her home that is not unlike that of a community of 68 , she offers these individualists support and the opportunity to develop freely and to contribute to the community.

The book receives a further social dimension through the figure of the “ capitalist ” Maulwisch. At first he is stubbornly opposed to the unconventional way the cat populates his house, especially since it is hardly ever able to pay its rent. He behaves as a bad-tempered tyrant and more than once scares the residents of the house with his loud, gruff manner. But it becomes clear early on that his roar is basically only supposed to hide his need for closeness and security. Because the intact, harmonious flat-sharing community in "Haus Katzen" is exactly what he had to do without in his life from childhood. Through the influence of the cat, he is gradually converted and ultimately a welcome guest in the house.

Numerous words in the text are italicized to indicate the emphasis of the authors.

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continuation

In 1984 the follow-up volume Neues von der Katzen mit Hut by the same authors was published.

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