Cat and dog relationship

LINDA HALL

VELAZQUEZ, like Mozart, did it all and he did it first.

And in Las Meninas ­ agreed to be one of the world’s best paintings, if not the best ­ Velazquez also did it first by illustrating Spanish attitudes towards cats and dogs.

Centuries ago he included a magnificent mastiff with a long ­ suffering expression in Las Meninas, which shows in detail the Infanta Margarita Teresa and her entourage.

Cut to Las Hilanderas and you see barefoot girls toiling in a workroom of the Royal Tapestry Factory accompanied by a common ­ or ­ garden tabby with a nice white shirtfront. The cat looks comfortable and well ­ fed but it’s lumped with workers, not a royal infanta’s entourage.

Spanish attitudes have changed since then, but in the early 1990s my own cats were not over ­ appreciated in rural Altea where we then lived.

That was because so many of our neighbours kept pigeons, either for the pot or racing. Some of those