If you found a dead cat at the bottom of your garden, what would you do with it? This question has been on my mind ever since I met a vicar who told me that he knew a broadcaster of a Christian persuasion with whom I was acquainted. When I mentioned this man of the cloth to the presenter in question, he said, “Oh yes, he’s a bit of a dead cat vicar.” My quizzical look prompted him to expand: “As in a bit hopeless, so gets moved from parish to parish, like if you find a dead cat in your garden – you just throw it over the fence and make it your neighbour’s problem.”
I was amazed by the sheer economy of this notion’s unpleasantness, with so few words used to convey disrespect for the deceased cat, the neighbour and the poor vicar himself, who had seemed rather nice to me. Perhaps concision in all things is a Christian virtue.
