Russell and Matty both loved cats and often wrote about their antics. In 1930, Russell visited his Yale classmate Levi Noble, the USGS geologist, whose portrait he painted in Valyermo, CA. He wrote, “Gray Mare brought a half-dead squirrel while I was painting, showed me how to kill and eat it and eat it very capably. There wasn’t a scrap left. They have a ladder up to the roof just for them, as they like to sleep up there on an Indian blanket under the eaves. You might say they run the house. Calico and Gray Mare.” See also: Cat Christmas Cartoons Gallery.