Look, I know the whole “Friday catblogging” thing has been done to death, but I hope you’ll forgive me for, just this once, combining two of my favorite addictions: the Life magazine photo archive and adorable cat pictures. Not only does this post contain your recommended daily allowance of 1940s cat pictures – ten of them! – but it’s even fortified with a useless bit of wartime trivia! So, yes, you might learn something while you’re pondering what captions to add to these monochrome lolcats-to-be…



There are ten fairly large pictures here, so have patience; they might take a second or two to load.





















Ah, the bliss; this and the next photo are of a kitten in a pail of milk, according to the original captions.This image, above, is from 1941, and shows – according to the original caption – “the proper way to safely pick up an excited cat in the event of first aid being required due to an air raid”. See, you learn something useless every day, don’t you?

Enjoy!