If you walk past the SUB often, chances are you have noticed a fluffy brownish-gray cat peeking at you through the bushes at one point or another. If you are like me, a cat lover, every time you walk by that area you keep your head on a swivel, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cat.
Last semester, the library posted a photo of the cat to their Instagram account, labeling the cat the “drain kitty.” I opened the comments to discover many defensive art students correcting the label.
“That’s the kiln cat!”
That’s when I knew there was something special there. I wanted to know the cat’s story.
When I walked into Paige Ward Moore’s office and saw ceramic mugs displayed on the walls and a picture of her own cat on her bookshelf, I knew I had found the right person to tell me about the kiln cat. Moore, an assistant professor in the art department, teaches ceramics and sculpture and is also a Union alumna. She graduated from Union in 2010 and then worked as the shop technician for the art department until 2014. During that time, a cat showed up.
“She was here that fall of 2013 and had kittens early spring of 2014 on top of old Methuselah,” Moore said. (Old Methuselah is the name that has been given to the department’s gas kiln.)
“I found them over spring break. I was here working and the students were gone,” Moore said. “I was the shop tech and the spring was cold. The cat had kittens on top of our gas kiln because there’s ceramic fiber insulation on top of it, which provided them warmth.”
Later that spring, Moore was getting ready to move on to graduate school and leave Union for a time. She ended up falling in love with one of the kittens and wanted to take him with her when she left. She adopted him, naming him Gerstley Borate, a ceramic material that is in the glazes they use. A perfectly fitting name for a cat born in the kiln yard. Gerstley’s siblings all ended up being adopted as well.
After graduate school, Moore returned to Union in 2019 to teach. She cannot account for the time she was away and say for sure if the cat that hangs around now is the same one she met in 2013.
“But I’m pretty sure that’s Gerstley’s mother. She looks exactly the same,” Moore said.
She even sleeps on top of old Methuselah still, where she had her kittens. It is quite possible that the kiln cat has resided on Union’s campus for over ten years now.
“The former department chair is who named her kiln cat,” Jenna Harbaugh, senior ceramics major and art department secretary said. Though Harbaugh told me some of the sculpture students have taken to calling the kiln cat by Teresea.
If you have ever tried to approach the kiln cat, you would know she is not big on people being in her space. Do not be offended by this, because she does not let anyone in the art department get too close to her either. Members of the department do have their own special relationship with her despite the cat’s aversion to being touched.
“She doesn’t let us get close, but she gives us slow blinks,” Moore said.
If you are fluent in cat, you know how high an honor this is. Cats do not like to be stared at, so it is better to slowly blink when a cat makes eye contact with you. If they give you slow blinks back, that is essentially the cat equivalent of giving you a kiss. Despite her seemingly reserved nature, the kiln cat’s personality does shine through at times.
“She’s friendly and still has energy like a kitten would because I’ve seen her playing with things when she’s by herself and people aren’t nearby,” Moore said.
Interacting with the kiln cat is a staple in a ceramic student such as Harbaugh’s daily routine.
“She greets me every morning,” Harbaugh said. “Usually she just watches me really close as I walk by, making sure that I’m not going to be in her personal space.”
Harbaugh, like Moore, has a cat she believes to be one of the kiln cat’s kittens. The combination of interacting with the kiln cat on the daily and owning one of her kittens means Harbaugh has a close connection with the cat. She even named her art business “Kiln Cat Studios” after her.
Though this cat is integral to the art department’s culture, she does not actually belong to the art department. She showed up on her own accord and now two women come from off-campus to feed her, care for her and even had her fixed recently.
So how did a cat that does not even belong to the art department become such a symbol for them? What made them come so strongly to the kiln cat’s defense when she was called by the wrong name?
“Community is really strong here in the art department. We’re very close and we do a lot of group projects together. We see the kiln cat every day because we all do projects out there all the time,” Harbough said. “She’s kind of like an unofficial mascot in a sense.”
Speaking as a former student and now professor, Moore accounted for how much time art students dedicate to their work. For ceramics and sculpture students specifically, a studio culture emerges because there is certain equipment they have to have to do their work that they cannot simply take home.
“Being in the studio becomes our home, where we live, where we create and where we spend most of our time,” Moore said. “I think, with the mindset of this almost second to our home space, it’s nice to have this cat be a part of that home dynamic.”
“I think she reminds me of the community of the art department and how it’s just a recognizable thing,” Harbaugh agreed. “I see her every day. It’s very comfortable. I’m at home with it.”
Proving just how much time these students spend on their work, Harbaugh was working on making pots for her senior show while we talked. She plans to make 150 of them.
“I’ve spent about five months on these. It’s a very long process, so if you have someone else going along beside you throughout that journey, you become really close,” Harbaugh said.
“Where you spend your time becomes a big part of who you are,” Moore said.
And, because the kiln cat resides where those in the department spend their time, she is a part of who they are, part of their community, part of their culture and their home away from home.
