Maunzi and the Prince
My unforgettable friend George Terramare and his wife Erni had Blue Persians in Vienna many years ago. The mother cat had the name "Maunzi" (the children received names from the "commedia del arte", like Truffaldino, Figaro etc. - after all, the Terramares were theater-people). Well, Maunzi had a curious habit. Dr. Terramare had a painting of Prinz Eugen von Savoyen, a man of great importance for Austria (and the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation"), who saved the Christian Occident from being conquered by the Turks. Dr. Terramare was a great admirer of the Prince. He wrote a play about the old Prince's last love and owned the above mentioned picture, painted by Kupetzky, a contemporary of the Prince who sat right in front of the artist (as at that time artists didn't have the modern advantage of painting not the original but a photography). Each day at exactly 6 p.m., Maunzi would take a seat in front of the painting and look at the Prince. After 20 to 30 minutes, she would leave.
Now in 1936 Vienna remembered the Prince who died 200 years before in 1736. The famous museum "Albertina" organized an exhibition "Prinz Eugen und seine Zeit", and they asked Dr. Terramare if he would lend them the painting. He agreed, so they came and carried it away. At 6 p.m. that evening, Maunzi appeared and did not find the painting. She was visibly disturbed, looking from George to Erni, from Erni to George. She waited, but the painting did not appear. After having waited, she went away.
The next day again at 6 p.m., that cat came to visit her beloved Prince, but, alas, he wasn't there. A cat doesn't give up easily. Every day Maunzi came, looked, waited, and went away clearly disappointed.
After the exhibition was closed, the painting came back. That evening at 6 p.m., Maunzi came and she immediately sat down in front of the picture and began her half hour of devotional looking at the Prince.
Somewhat later, Dr. Terramare studied a new biography of Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Prince, admired as a field marshal, a friend of the greatest philosophers and scientists of his time (Leibniz for instance), had dedicated much love and knowledge to animals, and was the owner of a magnificent private zoo. And what did George Terramare read? The Prince was the first person in history - probably from one of his campaigns in Southern Europe (Turks etc.) - to bring Blue Persian cats to Vienna. Were there some mystical ties between Maunzi and Eugenr of Savoy?