In Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (1610), the first part of which reads like myth and the second part like a fairytale, the safety and livelihoods of women are dependent upon men, yet family lineage is reliant upon a woman’s act of giving birth, and the one thing men can’t control is the certainty of paternity.  “No barricado for a belly,” (1.2.253) concludes King Leontes whose obsessive jealousy drives him to believe his best friend Polixenes has impregnated his wife, Hermione.  Subsequently, he imprisons her, declares her a whore, then subjects her to a humiliating public trial.  Her fate is dependent upon an Oracle handed down by Apollo, who pronounces her innocent and her baby “legitimate.” Still, Leontes’ rage results in the death of his only son, the casting out into the wilderness of his infant daughter Perdita, and the collapse of Hermione -- presumed dead at the end of Act III.  Apollo warns the chastened and repentant Leontes that he will have no heir “if that which is lost be not found,” (3.2.145). Sixteen years pass between the first part of the play and Act IV, which features growth, rebirth, and Perdita’s coming of age.  It also includes Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction, “Exit pursued by a bear.”  Madonna of the Cat imagines those lost years, examining themes of friendship, motherhood, and forgiveness.