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The principal theme of the last movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto K.453 was suggested to the composer by a tune whistled by his pet starling. The bird also knew his Concerto no. 17, for Mozart had devoted some idle moments to teaching the bird the principal theme of the last movement, a theme that is, admittedly, rather chirpy and bird-like in nature. Yet the starling was an imperfect student. One note it sang wrong every time and, according to the composer, another note was consistently held too long. It seems that even the example of the concerto's creator was insufficient to convince Mozart's starling to sing the piece exactly as written. On May 27, 1784 a strange funeral was held. As usual, hymns were sung at the graveside. Then Mozart recited a poem he'd penned. Finally, the composer's pet starling was laid to rest. The Roman poet Virgil spent the equivalent of £50,000 on his pet fly's funeral. American writer and wit, Dorothy Parker, had a pet dog called Cliché. She also had a pet parrot which she named Onan because it spilt its seed on the ground. Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise of Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XVI, was the first person in France to have a pet goldfish. (source: The Ultimate Irrelevant Encyclopaedia, Bill Hartson & Jill Dawson, Allen & Unwin, 1984) In 1907 Mrs Clarice Ashton Cross of Ascot, Great Britain turned down an offer of £32,000 (equivalent to $1,380,000 in 1985) from the American financier and industrialist J. Pierpont Morgan for her famous Pekinese Ch. Ch´êrh of Alderbourne. Mr Morgan then came back with an "open" cheque, but again she turned him down. The oldest cat ever recorded was probably the tabby Puss, owned by Mrs T. Holway of Clayhidon, Great Britain, who celebrated his 36th birthday on 28 November 1939 and died the next day. Lena, an American foxhound, produced a litter of 23 on 19 June 1944. All the puppies survived. A tabby cat named Dusty (b. 1935) of Bonham, Texas, USA, produced 420 kittens during her breeding life. In 1923, a collie named Bobbie, lost by his owners while they were on vacation in Wolcott, Indiana, USA, turned up at the family home in Silverton, Oregon six months later, after covering a distance of some 2,000 miles. The largest legacy devoted to a dog was by Miss Ella Wendel of New York, USA, who bequeathed her standard poodle, Toby, $75 million in 1931. When Mrs Grace Alma Patterson of Joplin, Montana, USA died in January 1978, she left her entire estate, worth $250,000, to her white alley cat Charlie Chan. When the cat died, the estate, which included a three-bedroom house, a 7-acre pet cemetery and a collection of valuable antiques, was to be auctioned off and the proceeds donated to humane societies. |
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