Cat = Drowned Pussy. Ok....

Lots of hits on the phrase "significance of cat in Sopranos finale," which shows four legs good, two legs bad.

Possibly.

Anyway, I culled this (fair use!) from a much longer piece in the TV guide website on the end of the Sopranos.


But let’s talk about that cat. (I knew these guys were the type to introduce a new character in the final episode.) The poor thing certainly holds a lot of meaning for the fearful, superstitious Paulie, who actually believes that the Virgin Mary once visited the Bada Bing. (Oh Walnuts, how we love you so.) Evidently the species is so powerful they can suck the breath right out of you, and you should never leave them alone with babies. Cats also have a big presence in the Yeats poem AJ keeps quoting: Yeats’ ominous gloom-and-doom poem has a half-lion beast gazing blankly toward Bethlehem, moving without reason or a human heart to its dark destiny. Tonight the cat only gazed at a photo of the murdered Christopher (perhaps the “rat in the wall” Tony mentioned?), but while Paulie assigns a religious meaning to the cat’s brainless gaze, Tony writes it off as “abstract shapes.” Regardless, the image of the staring cat evokes the image of the television audience staring blankly at the bright shapes on their TV screens, or even of a zoned-out brainless Uncle Junior staring blankly at the birds outside his window. (Birds, by the way, also make a gloomy appearance in Yeats’ poem.) The fear and heartless bloodiness that Tony has always grappled with in his life is so perfectly expressed in that one image of the cat staring blankly.

"Brainless" seems a little harsh, particularly when the cat is juxtaposed with Paulie. Comparing the cat to your typical couch potato is also unfair to the cat. Because when a cat vegges out, it does the whole vegetable. No TV needed to dull the brain. And who knows what that brain is up to?

Let us now recall:

Macavity: The Mystery Cat

Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw -
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air -
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity's not there!

Mcavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square -
But when a crime's discovered, then Macavity's not there!

He's outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard's.
And when the larder's looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke's been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair -
Ay, there's the wonder of the thing! Macavity's not there!

And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty's gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair -
But it's useless to investigate - Mcavity's not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
`It must have been Macavity!' - but he's a mile away.
You'll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,
Or engaged in doing complicated long-division sums.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibi, and one or two to spaer:
At whatever time the deed took place - MACAVITY WASN'T THERE!
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!