guerilla cats

[Sophii]

Hello !
Je travaille sur une version, un texte de Michael Innes, et j'ai du mal avec certaines expressions même quand j'essaie de les traduire au plus juste

J'ai "Even well-trained guerrilla cats have their nosy moments." que j'ai traduit en "Même les chats sauvages surentraînés [...]

Vous auriez des conseils, des corrections ? Merci !
[...]
Even with the context it's weird... "Appleby stopped in his tracks. The scream rang out a third time, rose to a yell, died away to an indescribable gurgle. Appleby grinned. Even well-trained guerrilla cats have their noisy moments."

 

[AsifAkheir]

[...]
Guerrillas are supposed to be stealthy - this one was screaming (why is unknown to me but perhaps it's clear somewhere else in the narrative).
A cat is just a rather passé, hip way of saying a guy. Jazz musicians of the 40s or 50s would use the expression to feel superior to the squares.

So translated in plain English:
Even men who are well-trained in guerrilla tactics [...]

It seems to me that it's being said in an ironic tone. Am I right?

 

[Sophii]

Yes you are right !

 

[petit1]

"guerillero" perhaps

 

[Omelette]

No, this isn't - outdated - slang. These are real cats. The previous paragraph starts ' Miss Dearlove owned cats. Numbers of these were following Appleby. Every now and then...the feline force would grow'.
He had thought the cats were ambushing him. It's comic

 

[petit1]

même les chats les plus rompus aux actions de guérilla ......

 

[ain'ttranslationfun?]

I wonder whether a "chat sauvage (wild)" could be "(sur)entrainé"?

 

[Omelette]

That's a mistake. They aren't 'des chats sauvages' they are domestic cats - pets - which are owned by a lady who lives in a rather grand house.
Cats which - for the purposes of comedy - the protagonist fears might be dangerous.
petit1's translation sounds quite good to me.

 

[Sophii]

Thanks Omelette and petit1, indeed it seems better to me too