With Richelieu the taste for cats was a mania; when he rose in the morning and when he went to bed at night he was always surrounded by a dozen of them with which he played, delighting to watch them jump and gambol. He had one of his chambers fitted up as a cattery, which was entrusted to overseers, the names of whom are unknown.
Abel and Teysandier came, morning and evening to feed the cats with pates fashioned from the white meat of chicken. At his death Richelieu left a pension for his cats and to Abel and Teysandier so that they might continue to care for their charges.
When he died Richelieu left fourteen cats of which the names were: Mounard le Fougueux, Soumise, Serpolet, Gaette, *Ludovic le Cruel, Mimie Piaillon, Femimare, *Lucifer, Lodoiska, Rubis sur l'Ongle, Pyrame, Thisbe, Racan and Perruque. These last two received their names from the fact that they were born in the wig of Racan, the academician.
I have never been to sure about Richelieu but with his love of cats he can't have been all bad.
*the two names I highlighted, EC, I thought could perhaps be AKAs for Jazz.
