The cat Hodge, the favourite pet of Dr Samuel Johnson
Dr Johnson, one of the towering figures of English literature, the 18th-century writer, poet and lexicographer, had a less serious side: he was fond of cats (in his famous dictionary he defined a cat as ‘a domestick animal that catches mice, commonly reckoned by naturalists the lowest order of the leonine species’). It is recorded that he had a white kitten called Lily, but his most famous pet was Hodge, immortalised in James Boswell’s Life of Johnson. You can see a Victorian illustration showing Dr Johnson and Hodge on this website.

Boswell tells us that Johnson was so fond of Hodge that he himself would go out to buy oysters for him in case the servants, having to go on errands on his pet’s behalf, would take a dislike to the cat. Hodge would scramble up Dr Johnson’s chest to receive strokes and caresses. Boswell also recounts that when he observed that Hodge was a fine cat, Dr Johnson replied, 'Why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;' and then as if perceiving that Hodge might be offended, added, 'but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed.'
Hodge had the honour of having an elegy written about him by Percival Stockdale, Johnson’s neighbour from the late 1760s, which tells us that Hodge was a black cat:



Who, by his master when caressed
Warmly his gratitude expressed;
And never failed his thanks to purr
Whene'er he stroked his sable fur.



Hodge is also remembered by a bronze statue which was put up in 1997 outside the house in Gough Square, London which he shared with Johnson and with Barber, Johnson's black manservant and heir. Hodge sits on top of Johnson’s dictionary, and beside him are some empty oyster shells. The inscription reads: ‘A very fine cat indeed’.

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