ABSTRACT
This essay’s title playfully engages in the academic controversy about anthropomorphism and anthropocentricism. The title begs questions, such as, do animals exist in nursery rhymes for the sole reason of educating children how to behave as good humans, and if so, is that a hegemonical act that makes those who are involved in writing, teaching, reading, studying, or reciting nursery rhymes arrogant colonizers of animals (and children)? The essay replies by analyzing several “classic” nursery rhymes that feature kittens, an animal that did not always receive the kindest treatment by humans in the earlier centuries. Pussy rhymes taught Victorian children how to treat humans and nonhumans alike with respect and compassion. They taught other lessons as well that helped children navigate a world not always hospitable to them or to animals, as they gained perspectives from the animals in nursery rhymes. The chapter also offers a changing history of the perception that Europeans held about cats as depicted in children’s literature.
