Cat Paintings and Rebuses

Mall is actually a homophone with an honorific word for an octogenarian that is someone who's 80 years old. Dear is a homophone for a septogenarian that's someone who's 70 years old. With mall and dia, me, cat and butterfly you actually had lots of paintings with cats playing with butterflies - these were great parents for old men. There are also actually paintings of cats with mice in their teeth. These are called silkworm cats. They were actually honing outside of where silkworms would be spinning their cocoons. The idea was that they scared the mice away.