French author Théophile Gautier was fanatical about cats, as his writings about them clearly reveal.  Describing some of his feline friends in one of his books, La Ménagerie Intime: "Childebrand was a splendid gutter-cat, striped black and tan...with a distant tigerish look. Other cats he mentions are: Madam Théophile, a red and white cat who stole food from the author as it was en route from plate to mouth, Don Pierrot de Navarre: A white cat who would often snatch Gautier's pen from his hand as I wrote, Séraphita: Another white cat, who is described as being reserved, and addicted to perfume. 

These two white cats produced three black kittens, who were all named after characters in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables: Enjoras, Gavroche and Eponine, who had a daughter named Cléopatre, a black cat that liked standing on three legs. Zizi, an Angora was another of Gautier's cats. He liked nothing better that to walk up and down on the piano keyboard.

This man was truly very passionately in love with cats, so much so that it was said that he cared for nothing else, at times.

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