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diff --git a/37329.txt b/37329.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75ecb90 --- /dev/null +++ b/37329.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4280 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Domestic Cat, by Gordon Stables + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Domestic Cat + +Author: Gordon Stables + +Release Date: September 6, 2011 [EBook #37329] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DOMESTIC CAT *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +The Domestic Cat +By Gordon Stables +Published by George Routledge and Sons, Ludgate, London. +This edition dated 1876. + +The Domestic Cat, by Gordon Stables. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +THE DOMESTIC CAT, BY GORDON STABLES. + +CHAPTER ONE. + +CLASSIFICATION: ITS BASIS. + +In the feline world you find no such diversity, of form, shape, +disposition, coat, size, etc, as you do in the canine. Dogs differ from +each other in both the size and conformation of the skeleton, and in +many other important points, almost as much as if they belonged to +entirely different species. Mark, for instance, how unlike the bulldog +is to the greyhound, or the Scotch toy-terrier to the English mastiff; +yet, from the toy-terrier upwards to the giant Saint Bernard, they are +all _dogs_, every one of them. So is the jackal, so is the fox and the +wolf. The domesticated dog himself, indeed, is the best judge as to +whether any given animal belongs to his own species or not. I have +taken dogs to different zoological gardens, and have always found that +they were ready enough to hob-nob with either jackal or fox, if the +latter were only decently civil; but they will turn away with +indifference, or even abhorrence, from a wild goat or sloth. But among +the various breeds of cats there exists no such characteristic +differences, so that in proposing a classification one almost hesitates +to use the word "breed" at all, and feels inclined to search about for +another and better term. If I were not under a vow not to let my +imagination run riot in these papers, but to glide gently over the +surface of things, rather than be erudite, philosophical, theoretical, +or speculative, I should feel sorely tempted to pause here for a moment, +and ask myself the question--Why are there so many distinct breeds of +the domesticated dog, and, properly speaking, only one of the more +humble cat? Did the former all spring from the same original stock, or +are certain breeds, such as the staghound, etc, more directly descended +from the wolf, the collie, Pomeranian, etc, from the fox after his kind, +and other breeds from animals now entirely extinct in the wild state? +And once upon a time, as the fairy books say, did flocks of wolves, +foxes, wild mastiffs, and all dogs run at large in these islands, +clubbing together in warlike and predatory bands, each after his kind, +much in the same way that the Scottish Highlanders used to do two or +three hundred years ago? Animals of the dog kind are a step or two more +advanced in civilisation, if I may be allowed to use the term, than +cats; and hence, as intelligence can appreciate intelligence, and always +seeks to rise to a higher level, more breeds, or a larger number of +species, of the former than of the latter have forsaken their wild or +natural condition to attach themselves to man. May not the time come, +in the distant future, when a larger variety of feline animals shall +become fashionable--when domesticated tigers, tame lions, or pet ocelots +shall be the rage? If so, that will indeed be the millennium for cats. +Just fancy how becoming it would be to meet the lovely and accomplished +Miss De Dear out walking, and leading a beautiful leopard by a slight +silver chain, or Lady Bluesock in her phaeton, with a tame ocelot beside +John on the dickey! A lady beside a lion on the lawn would, I think, +make a prettier picture than one by the side of a peacock, and a tame +Bengalese tiger would be a pet worthy to crouch at the foot of a throne. +To be sure, little bits of mistakes would occur at times; instead of +the pussy of the period bolting away with the canary, nothing less would +satisfy the pet than a nice fat baby, and then those extraordinary +people the cat--exterminators would be louder in their denunciations +than ever. + +If we dissect the cat, we will find that the skeleton of one breed of +pussy would pretty nearly pass for that of another; we find the same +shape and almost the same size of bones, the same arrangement of teeth +as regards their levelness, the same number of teeth, and the same +formation of jawbone. Clothe that skeleton with muscle, and still you +can hardly tell the breed of the cat, for scarcely will you be able to +find a muscle in the one breed that has not its fellow in all, a little +difference perhaps in the size and development of one or two, but even +this more the result of accident and use than a distinction real and +natural. + +I feel as I write that I am sailing as close to a wind as possible; I am +luffing all my ship will steer; were I to keep her away a single point, +I should drift down into the pleasant gulf-stream of comparative +anatomy, and thence away and away to the broad enchanted ocean of +speculative theory. And I confess, too, I wouldn't mind a cruise or two +in those latitudes, did space and time admit of it. + +Now, I do not mean to say that there is really no difference in shape +and form between the different breeds of the domestic cat, but rather +that this difference is so minute, compared to that which exists between +dogs, that the term "breeds" seems almost a misnomer as applied to cats. +It is only when you see pussy arrayed in all the wealth and beauty of +her lovely fur, that you can see any real distinction between her and +another. + +In regard to the origin of the domestic cat, naturalists have squabbled +and fought for centuries, and the best thing possible, I think, is for +every man steadfastly to retain his own opinion, then everybody is sure +to be right. For myself, I really cannot see that it would either +assist us in breeding better cats, or render us a bit more humane in our +treatment of the pretty animal, to be assured that she was first +imported into this country from Egypt or Persia in the year one thousand +and ever so much before Christ, or that the father of all the cats was a +Scottish wild cat, captured and tamed by some old Highland witch-wife a +thousand years before the birth of Noah's grandfather. What matters it +to us whether the pussy that purrs on our footstool is a polecat bred +bigger, or a Polar bear bred less? There she is,-- + + The rank is but the guinea stamp, + And a cat's a cat for a' that. + +But, and if, you are fond of pedigree, why then surely it ought to +satisfy you to know that, ages before your ancestors or mine could +distinguish between a B and a bull, pussy was the pet of Persian +princes, the idol of many a harem, and the playmate of many a juvenile +Pharaoh. What classification, then, are we to make of cats? We search +around us in vain for something to guide us; then, fairly on our +beam-ends, are fain to clutch at the only solution to the question, and +fall back upon coat and colour, with some few distinctive points of +difference in the size and shape of the skull and body. Colour or +markings, then, and quality of coat, are the guiding distinctions +between one breed of cat and another; and to these we add, as +auxiliaries, size and shape. + +_Colour_.--Whether we understand it or not, there, undoubtedly, is +nothing in this world left to chance alone, and nothing, I sincerely +believe, is done by Nature without a purpose. The same merciful +Providence that clothes the lambs with wool, the reason for which we can +understand, paints the rose's petal, the pigeon's breast, or even the +robin's egg, for reasons which to us are inscrutable, or only to be +vaguely guessed at. We can tell the "why" and the "wherefore" of the +rainbow's evanescent hues, but who shall investigate the laws that +determine the fixed colours of the animal and vegetable creation? Who +shall tell us why the grass is green, the rose is red, that bullfinch on +the pear-tree so glorious in his gaudiness, and that sparrow so humble +in his coat of brown? + +If we ask the Christian philosopher, he will tell us that the colours in +animated nature are traced by the finger of God, who always paints the +coat or skin of an animal with that tint or hue, which shall tend most +to the propagation and preservation of its species. That He clothes the +hare and rabbit in a suit of humble brown, that they may be less easily +seen by the eye of the sportsman, or their natural enemies, the polecat, +weasel, white owl, or golden-headed eagle. That birds--who flit about +all summer in coats so gay and jackets so gaudy, that even a hawk may +mistake them for bouquets of flowers, and think them not worth eating-- +as soon as the breeding season is over, and the leaves and flowers fade +and fall, are presented by nature with warmer but more homely suits of +apparel, more akin in colour to the leafless hedgerows, or the brown of +the rustling beech leaves, among which they seek shelter from the wintry +blast. If you go farther you may fare worse. No one in the world can +be a greater admirer than I of the genius of Tyndall, Darwin, or Huxley, +but I must confess they get a little, just a _leetle_, "mixed" at times; +and I doubt if Darwin himself, or any other sublunarian whatever, +understands his (Darwin's) theory of colour. He says, for instance--I +can't use the exact words, but can give his meaning in my own--that the +wild rabbit or the hare was not painted by the finger of nature the +colour we find them with any pre-defined idea of protecting the animal +against its enemies; but that in the struggle for life that has been +going on for aeons, considering the conditions of its surroundings, it +was only the grey rabbit that had the power of continuing in existence, +escaping its enemies by aid of its dusky coat. Darwin thinks, indeed, +that religionists put the cart before the horse, to use a homely phrase. +I confess that I myself prefer the good old theory of design--of a God +of design, and a prescient Providence. I believe the testimony of the +rocks, I believe to a great extent in evolution--it is a grand theory, +and one which gives the Creator an immensity of glory--but I cannot let +any one rob me of the belief that beauty and colour are not all chance. + +Yonder is a hornet, just alighted at the foot of the old oak-tree where +I am writing, so uncomfortably near my nose, indeed, that I can't help +wishing he had kept to his nest for another month; but the same April +sunshine that lured me out of doors lured the hornet, and there it +stands, all a-quiver with delight, on a budding acorn, looking every +moment as if it would part amidships. "Do you think, Mrs Hornet, O +thou tigress of bees, if your lovely body, with its bars of gold, had +been of any other colour, that, under the peculiar conditions in which +your ancestors lived, you would, ages ago, have ceased to exist; that +ants, or other `crawling ferlies,' who detest the colour of turmeric, +would, in spite of your ugly sting, have devoured you and yours?" + +Yonder, again, is a beautiful chaffinch; he was very glad to come to my +lawn-window every day, during all the weary winter, to beg a crumb of +bread. He forgets that now, or thinks perhaps that I do not know him in +his spring suit of clothes, and golden-braided coat and vest. But I do, +and I still believe--simple though the belief may be--that the same +Being, who gave life and motion to that little beetle which is now +making its way to the highest pinnacle of my note-book, as proud as a +boy with a new kite, to try its wings for the first time, tipped that +ungrateful finch's feathers with crimson, white, and gold, in order to +make him more attractive to his little dowdy thing of a wife, who has +been so busy all the morning building her nest on the silver birch, and +trying to find lichens to match the colour of the tree. For Mrs Finch +is a nervous, timid little body, and had no thoughts of marrying at all, +and indeed would have preferred to remain single, and would have so +remained, had she not been a female; but being a female, how could she +resist that splendid uniform? + +I go into the garden and bend me over the crocus beds--white crocuses, +orange crocuses, and blue, all smiling in the sunshine of spring. Each +is a little family in itself, and they would like to know each other too +so very much, for they have ever so many love tales to breathe into each +other's ears. But they are all fast by one end and cannot move. +Whatever shall they do, and what will become of the next generation of +crocuses? I can hear them whispering their tales of love to the passing +wind, and so can you if you are a lover of Nature; but the wind is too +busy, or too light, or too something or another, and cannot pause to +listen. So the little things are all in despair, when past comes a bee. +Now bees, and butterflies too, for all they have got so many eyes, are +rather short-sighted, but even a bee cannot help seeing that gorgeous +display of orange, white, and blue, so he pops at once into the bosom of +a blue crocus, and is made as welcome as the flowers in May. + +"Oh! you dear old bee," says the crocus, "you're just come in time; have +something to eat first. I have a nice little store of honey for you; +and then you shall bear a message to my lady-love--the pretty blue belle +crocus mind, not the white. I wouldn't have a race of variegated +children for the world." + +"All right," says the bee, and away he flies with the message of love to +the blue belle crocus, and thus the loves of the crocuses are cemented. +They tell the old, old story by proxy, because they can't do it as you +or I do, reader, eye to eye and lip to lip. + +For colour has its uses, and nothing that exists was made in vain, +although some are selfish enough to believe that all the colour and +beauty they see around them, during a ramble in the country, was made +but to please the eye of man. + +Colour I believe to be connected in some way with the mystery of heat +and life. We all know that certain colours will dispel or retain heat; +black is more warm, for instance, than white. There may be, then, a +_scale_ of colours as it were, each colour differing in the amount of +heat-retaining power; and, it may be that, having reference to this +scale, the colours on an animal's coat, are apportioned to it in the way +which shall best conduce to its health, comfort, and happiness. + +The colour of any animal is an important consideration in determining +its breed, and this is especially the case among cats, where indeed it +forms the basis of our classification. Colour is often the key to the +character of the cat--to its temper, whether savage or good-natured; to +its qualities as a good hunter or the reverse; and to its power of +endurance, its eyesight, and its hearing. + +_Size_.--Cats of different breeds--I use the word for want of a better-- +are generally of different sizes, and the skeleton is, as a rule, larger +in some breeds than in others. The male ought to be larger than the +female. + +_Form_.--The difference in form is principally observable in the shape +and rotundity of skull, the length and shape of the nasal bones and jaw, +and the length of the tail and its form at the point. The ears also +vary a good deal in length in the different breeds, and also in breadth, +and in "sit" or position. + +_Pelage, or Coat_.--The coat is of two different kinds, the long and the +short. In the former, the longer and softer and silkier the better, and +in the latter the length of the hairs, their closeness and glossiness, +are to be taken into consideration. You can generally tell by one +glance at the animal's coat how she is fed, how she is treated and +housed, and the condition of her health. + +Having got so far, we will next bring pussy herself on the stage, and +see how far these remarks apply to her, according to her breed and +species. + +CHAPTER TWO. + +BREEDS AND CLASSES. + +In future chapters I will give the habits and characteristics of the +domestic cat in general, with some specialities of a few of the +different kinds in particular. The "tricks and manners" of one cat, +however, will be found to correspond pretty closely with those of any +other. + +But before going farther on with this chapter, I wish to make a plea in +pussy's favour. I myself have studied cat life, off and on, for twenty +years, so I suppose it will be admitted I am no mean authority on the +subject. During that time I have come to certain conclusions, which in +some cases run contrary to the opinions generally conceived of those +animals--contrary, at any rate, to the belief current some years ago, +before pussy was thought worthy to hold a show of her own. Towards this +ocean of contrary opinions I have been wafted, not by the wind of my own +sails alone, but aided and supported by many hundreds of anecdotes of +domestic pussy's daily life, habits, likes and dislikes. These +anecdotes have been supplied to me from trustworthy people, in every +position of life--from the poverty-stricken old maid with her one feline +favourite; from the honest working-man with his fireside pet and +children's playmate; from farmers, solicitors, doctors, and parsons; +from baronets' ladies; and, in more than one instance, from the +daughters of peers of the realm, allied to royalty itself. These +anecdotes have, in almost every case, been substantially authenticated, +and _always_ discarded wherever, in any case, they were open to doubt. + +From these anecdotes and essays, and from my own experience as well, I +have arrived at the following conclusions--and be it remembered I speak +of cats that are properly fed and housed, and have been taught habits of +cleanliness when kittens:-- + +1. That cats are extremely sagacious. + +2 That cats are cleanly and regular in their habits. + +3. That cats are fond of children. + +4. That cats are excellent mothers, and will nurse the young of any +small animal on the loss of their own. + +5. That cats are fond of roaming abroad. + +6. That cats are brave to a fault. + +7. That cats are fond of other animals as playmates. + +8. That cats are easily taught tricks. + +9. That cats are excellent hunters. + +10. That cats are good fishers, and can swim on occasion. + +11. That cats are very tenacious of life. + +12. That cats are fond of home. + +13. That cats are _fonder far of master or mistress_. + +14. That cats are _not_, as a rule, _thieves, but the reverse_. + +15. That long-headed, sharp-nosed cats are the best mousers. + +These are not texts, but deductions. + +All that is known for certain of the origin of the domestic cat may be +expressed in three letters, _n i l_--nil. And, after all, I cannot see +that it matters very much, for if the theory of Darwin be correct, that +everything living sprang originally from the primordial cell, then cats +or dogs, or human beings, we all had the same origin. But, again, +according to Darwin, the cat is an older animal than man in the world's +history; and if this be so, how silly of us to bother our heads in +trying to find out who first domesticated the cat, when in all +probability _it was the cat who first domesticated man_. But, avaunt! +all learned discourse on the subject; perish all discursive lore. I +have studied the matter over and over again, and read about it in +languages dead and living, till my head ached, and my heart was sick; +and still, for the life of me, I cannot make out that there are any more +than two distinct _species_ of domestic cats in existence. There are, +first, the European or Western cat, a short-haired animal; and secondly, +the Asiatic or Eastern cat--called also Persian or Angora, according to +the difference in the texture of the coat, it being exceedingly fine, +soft, and satiny in the Angora, and not so much so in the Persian--a +long-haired cat. All the others, such as Assyrian, Abyssinian, the +Maltese, Russian, Chinese, Italian, French, Turkish, etc, are either +inter-breeds between the two, or lineal descendants of the one or the +other, altered and modified by climate and mode of life. + +Taking everything into consideration, I am inclined to favour the belief +held by some, that our own fireside cat was first domesticated from our +mountain wild cat. I mentioned, this to a naturalist of some repute, +with whom I was dining only a few days ago. + +"_What_?" he roared, trying to get across the table, in order to jump +down my throat. "_You_ ought to know, sir, that all animals increase, +instead of degenerating in size, by being transplanted to domestic +life." + +I didn't contradict the man in his own house; but indeed, reader, the +rule, if rule it be, admits of numerous exceptions. It holds good among +horses, and I suppose cattle of all kinds; it even holds good if we go +down the scale of organic life, and apply it to fruit and flowers; but +how about the wilder animals, and our forest trees? Take the latter +first--will the acorns of a garden-grown oak-tree, or the cone of a +transplanted Scotch pine, produce such noble specimens as those that +toss their giant arms in the forest or on mountain-side? Or will a +menagerie-bred lion, or tiger--feed them ever so well--ever reach the +noble proportions of those animals who in freedom tread the African +desert, or roam uncaged and untrammelled through the jungles of Eastern +India? What prison-born elephant ever reached in height to the +shoulders even, of the gigantic bulls that my poor friend, Gordon +Cumming, used to slay? Do eagles, owls, the wilder hawks, alligators, +or anacondas do anything else but degenerate in captivity? But even +admitting, hypothetically, that the rule would hold good as regards +cats, there isn't such a very great difference in the size of the tame +and wild cats after all. I do not think that all the wild cats ever I +saw in Scotland or elsewhere, would average over ten to twelve pounds; +and twelve pounds is no unusual weight for our domestic cheety. Another +thing that has often struck me is this: the farther north you go in +Scotland, and the nearer to the abode of the wild cat, the greater is +the resemblance in head and tail, and often in colour, of the tame cat +to the wild. And, mark you, the domestic is often known to inter-breed +with the wild cat, and the offspring can be tamed and reared. This is +considered nothing unusual in the Highlands. + +CHAPTER THREE. + +BREEDS AND CLASSES. THE TORTOISESHELL. + +The classification I propose of the domestic cat is an exceedingly +simple one, as I think all classifications ought to be; it will, I +trust, however, be found quite sufficient, and a useful one. We have +first, then, the two and only two distinct breeds mentioned above, +viz:--One. The European Cat. Two. The Asiatic. + +From these two alone, if you get them of different colours, you can very +easily manufacture all the varieties and various-coloured pussies you +are ever likely to meet with, either on the show-benches or in domestic +life. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +ONE. The European, short-haired, or Western Cats. + +These I divide into five primary classes, namely--1, _Tortoiseshell_; 2, +_Black_; 3, _White_; 4, _Blue_ or _Slate-colour_; and 5, the _Tabbies_. + +The _Tortoiseshell_ I subdivide into secondary classes: 1, the pure +Tortoiseshell; and 2, the Tortoiseshell-and-white. + +The _Black_ is subdivided likewise into two: 1, pure Black; and 2, +Black-and-white. + +The _White_ has no subdivision, but is bred in with any or all the other +classes. + +The _Blue_ or _Slate-coloured Cat_. These are subdivided into two: 1, +the pure Blue; and 2, the Blue-and-white. + +_Tabbies_ are easily subdivided into four classes, viz:--1, the Red +Tabby; 2, the Brown Tabby; 3, the Blue or Silver Tabby; and 4, the +Spotted Tabby. + +There are other odd cats, such as the Manx or tailless cat, the hybrid, +the six-clawed cat, and some curiously-coloured animals, which I shall +mention in another place, for these have no right to have classes of +their own, any more than black-and-tan Newfoundlands, or kittens with +eight legs. + +I shall take these in their order of rotation. + +1. _The Tortoiseshell Cat_.--This might also be called the +black-and-tan cat. If you want to get a good idea of the colour this +cat is, or ought to be, take a keek through a lady's tortoiseshell +back-hair comb. That is about it; but you never see such perfection in +pussy's coat. + +For many a long year it was almost universally believed that there never +was any such thing as a tortoiseshell male or Tom cat, or ever could be; +and many an anxious search has many an old maid had over her newly-born +litter of kits, to see if she would be fortunate enough to find the +much-to-be-desired anomaly. For, bear in mind, a belief used to be +pretty current that 300 pounds--or was it 500 pounds?--would be paid +over some counter, by some fool or fools unknown, to anyone who should +be able to put the possibility of the existence of a tortoiseshell Tom +beyond dispute--by producing one. I saw an advertisement the other day +in _The Live Stock Journal_, offering for sale a tortoiseshell Tom, at +the low price of 100 pounds! I hope, if only for poor Tom's sake, that +somebody with more money than brains bought it--for the cat anyone paid +100 pounds for would, I should think, be certain of good milk and +generous treatment. + +I knew a poor old woman in Skye, and this old woman's pussy was as +pussies love to be. And lo! one night the old woman, in the silence of +night, dreamed a dream. She thought that the cat came to her bedside, +and said to her, "Arise, mistress, come and see." That she followed +pussy at once. That pussy led her to the barn. That there she found, +cuddled together in a heap upon an old sack, no less than five +tortoiseshell Toms. She dreamt besides that she sold the lot for 1,000 +pounds each, and bought a carriage and four, right off the reel, and set +up for a lady of fashion on the spot. Anxiously did the old woman watch +for her cattie's accouchement, but much to her disappointment they all +had white about them. Next time that pussy was in the same way, her +mistress had an old tortoiseshell comb nailed up above its bed. Even +this didn't do, so--for by this time the ancient dame had tortoiseshell +Tom on the brain--she set out for Portree, a distance of fully sixteen +miles, where she managed to procure a live tortoise as a playmate for +her pet. Pussy never took much to the tortoise; all she did was to sit +and watch it, and whenever it protruded its scaly head, the cat smacked +it in again. This might have been the reason why her kittens had all +white about them the third time. The old woman didn't despair, however; +she took to praying, and prayed in English, and prayed in Gaelic, and +she told me seriously that she never doubted but that her prayers would +one day be answered--_if_, she added, _it was for her good_. I didn't +doubt it either, but Tom never came ashore as long as I was in the +island, neither was the old creature's snuff-box ever empty. + +I have but little fancy for this breed myself. They are usually +sour-tempered, unfriendly little things to all save those who own and +love them. They are, moreover, not very prepossessing. I speak of the +cat as _I_ have found it, and I doubt not there are many exceptions. + +_Merits_.--They are excellent and patient mousers, and the _best_ of +hunters. They are likewise good mothers. They are as game as a bull +and terrier--in fact they seem to fear nothing on four legs; and when +they do take off the gloves to fight, I pity the animal they tackle, for +what the tortoiseshell lacks in weight, she makes up for amply in +courage. They are very wise and sagacious, and faithful to the death to +those who own them. + +_Points_.--1. _Size_: You don't look for a very large cat of the pure +tortoiseshell breed, nor a very pretty one. The larger the better to a +certain extent. I have known a small-sized tortoiseshell cat follow the +rats even into their own burrows, again and again, until she had +exterminated them. 2. _Head_: The head is small and rather bullety, the +ears moderately large and nicely cocked, and the eyes small, and the +darker the better. 3. _Colour and markings_: The colour is as near +tortoiseshell as possible, and the markings must not only be deep and +pretty, but very distinct in the centre, although blending insensibly +where they meet, and artistically arranged. You mustn't expect to find +the colour or markings very nicely arranged on the male tortoiseshell. +No white is allowed on this breed of cat. Tortoiseshell Tom _is_ +tortoiseshell Tom, and prefers to be judged alone and on his own merits; +for, as a rule, his right there is none to dispute. 4. _Pelage_ or +_Coat_: Hair moderately short, but _very_ fine, glossy, and silken. +N.B.--Knock off from five to eight points for _cinder-holes_. I now +give the points in a tabular form, with their full value. Not, +remember, that as a rule I go in for judging by points; still, a table +of this sort has its value, as one can see just at a glance what is +looked for in each breed, and what isn't:-- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Points of the Tortoiseshell Cat. + +1. Size, 5. + +2. Head, 10. + +3. Colour and markings, 25. + +4. Pelage, 10. + +Total, 50. + +The next pussy which demands a few passing remarks is _The +Tortoiseshell-and-white_. This is often a very beautiful cat, more +especially when young, as, when old, they sometimes degenerate into very +lazy habits, especially if they have a large amount of white about them. +They are pretty, and they seem to know it, taking great delight in +keeping the white portions of their fur as pure as snow. I knew a cat +something of this breed, who was nearly all white, excepting a beautiful +tortoiseshell patch on the upper part of one thigh. She was +unexceptionably cleanly, and the frantic efforts she used to make to +wash off that spot of black-and-amber were ridiculous to behold. She +would sit for hours admiring herself in the glass, and occasionally +dipping her paw in her saucer of milk, until she spied that unhappy +spot; to that she would at once devote a good half-hour, but finding no +appreciable difference in it, she would start away in high dudgeon, +swishing her tail about, like a lion in love. That spot was the only +barrier to pussy's bliss. _Moral_: There's no such thing as perfect +happiness here below--even to a cat. + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +THE BLACK CAT. + +Next on the list of classification comes the _Black Cat_, subdivided +into--1, the Pure Black; and 2, the Black-and-white. + +1. _The Pure Black_.--This is one of my pet breeds. The pure black cat +is such a noble, gentlemanly fellow, and if well-bred and trained--and +he is capable of a very large amount of training--he is one of the best +and most useful cats you can have in the house. There is no +namby-pambiness about black Tom, and no squeamishness either. You can +take him or tire of him, just as you please; it is all one to Tom. +There is a certain independence about his every movement, and an +assumption of dignity, as he saunters about the house, gazes at the fire +of a winter's evening, or rolls himself in the sunniest spot of the +garden in summer, that are both amusing and delightful. Black Tom will +give you a paw, but you may take it or leave it, just as suits you; and +if you annoy him too much, he will very quickly cast his gloves and make +you laugh with the wrong side of your mouth, as the saying is. And it +is quite astonishing, too, what a beautiful deep and cleanly-cut wound-- +I speak feelingly, as a surgeon--Tom can make on the fleshy portion of +your hand, or down the side of your nose. For black Tom, and all the +race of black cats, seem to have made up their minds ages ago not to +stand any nonsense from man or beast. + +But you mustn't run away with the idea that black Tom is a pugnacious +animal, or fond of fighting for fighting's sake. No, Tom is never +aggressive; he stands a good deal before he is thoroughly roused, and, +to tell the truth, I have more than once seen a tortoiseshell thrash a +black cat double its size. But if there is a lady cat in the play, the +affections of a queen to be gained, or if black Tom has made up his mind +to carry war into the heart of a rival's camp, doesn't he go at it with +a will! If the other cat will not surrender, ten to one all you'll find +of that cat in the morning will be the front teeth, the wind of the +battle having blown all the fluff away, while, if you cast your eyes +upwards, you will see black Tom on the top of the wall making love to +his Dinah, and looking as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. + +Black Tom is generally most exemplary in the matter of cleanliness, +personal or otherwise--there you have him again. And he is as proud as +Lucifer--for he is quite well aware that he _is_ good-looking. If he +were a man, he is just the sort of fellow who would wear a well-fitting +coat, spotless linen, and well-fitting boots and gloves, and part his +hair in the centre without appearing a cad. You will seldom see +cinder-holes in black Tom; if you do, you may lay your honour on it, +that the animal is either aged and infirm, or suffering from some +internal disorder. + +The black cat might be called the Newfoundland of the feline race, not +only in colour, but in nearly all his ways. He is not the pussy, +however, I like to see made a pet of by children, for two reasons-- +first, he is too fine an animal to be crumpled and spoiled; and, +secondly, because, like a good many Newfoundlands, he is liable at times +to be just a little uncertain in temper. + +Although he cannot save life, like his prototype, still black Tom makes +the best of black guards, and will protect his master or mistress, or +their property. One or two that I happen to think of now, keep a watch +on their master's wares just as a dog would. One belonging to Mr +Taylor, of Cumministon, "clooked" a little boy in the very act of +stealing a piece of butter, and held him, growling fiercely the while, +until his master came. The same cat would keep the packet of groceries +ordered by a customer, until the money was paid, and he was told it was +all right. The cunning and wiliness of the black cat is sometimes +highly amusing. I have known a cat of this breed feign death to escape +a thrashing; that is, when being thrashed, he pretended that one of the +blows had suddenly killed him, and would lie to all appearance stark and +stiff on the floor for several minutes; but if you watched him narrowly +you would presently see just a line of his cute brown eye, and as soon +as the coast was clear, Tom would come to life again, and be off like a +shot. + +Black cats are sometimes thieves. I know the reader would put it in +more forcible language, but don't you expect for a single moment that I +will say more against my pets than the exigencies of truth compel me to, +so there! I say they are at times just a _leetle_ addicted to +appropriating what they have but small legal right to. But there is +this to be said in their favour--when they are thieves _they are swells +at it_. I have a black cat in my eye at this very moment, and if, my +_dear_ lady, you are at all fond of that sort of thing, it would, simply +do your heart good to watch that pussy stalking steak. He is such an +honest-looking cat, you see, and from the easy way he sits in the +doorway opposite the butcher's, with his half-shut eyes and his dreamy +air, you would feel convinced that the house was his home, that all the +adjoining property belonged to him, and he had a vote in Parliament and +a seat on the municipal bench. But bide a wee till Blocks turns round +to serve a customer, when pop! fuss!! honest Tom is round the corner +with a pound of beef in his mouth, before you could say "Muslin!" Oh! +it's charming, I assure you, but rather rough on Blocks. + +I must confess, too, that, at times, there is about a black Tom cat a +look which you can only designate as Satanical--Mephistophelean, then, +if you object to the other word--and I have no doubt it is this look of +devil-beauty in Tom which has often led him to be suspected of being +either an imp of darkness or possessed of one. A witch, you know, is +generally supposed to have as a companion a familiar spirit in the shape +of a black cat. Superstitions connected with the black cat are still +common in some parts of the country and among sailors. We had a black +Tom in the _Penguin_ which led us many a pretty dance. He was treated +as a fiend, poor fellow, and behaved as such; and the captain was as +much afraid of him as anybody else, and never failed to let go the +life-buoy and lower a boat when Tom missed his footing and fell +overboard, which the cat had a happy knack of doing periodically. Tom +was missed, though, one morning, and seen again no more. He had +doubtless fallen into the sea in the darkness of the middle watch. + +This cat had a strange method of fishing, which is worthy of notice. +You are, I suppose, aware that flying fish are caught by exposing a +light on deck, which they always vault towards. Black Tom's eyes had +the same effect. He would sit on the bulwarks and glare into the sea +till a fish flew towards or over him, then he nabbed it nimbly. Just +before we came to the Cape, for the last time in that commission, I +heard two blue-jackets conversing about this black Tom. + +"Look, see!" one was saying, "I think he were a devil, nothin' more and +nothin' less; and I'll bet you five bob he were a devil." + +"Done," said the other sailor. + +Three days after, both men were "planked" for coming off drunk. They +had been on shore drinking their bet beforehand. Simple souls, they +both came to me after punishment, to get my decision as to who should +pay. Their doctor, they thought, knew everything. But very sadly were +they put out, when I told them the bet could never be satisfactorily +decided _in this world_. + +"Ah! doctor," said one, waggishly, "it's a jolly good thing we drank the +bet beforehand." + +Black Tom's queen is usually a very lively lady, and up to any amount of +fun and mischief. + +_Merits_.--For house-hunting they are the _best_ cats you can have. +They are very beautiful and graceful; and, indeed, a well-bred, +well-trained black Tom is a veritable prince of the feline race. The +finest cat of this sort I ever saw was at Glasgow Show, "Le Diable" to +name. He _was_ a beauty. What attitudes he did! What grace in every +movement! and such a colour and coat and eye! I forget now who owned +him, but I remember I gave him first prize after only one glance at the +others. Black cats are not so easily seen at night, and their hearing +is extremely keen; so, likewise, is their eyesight. As a rule, they +kill rats and mice more for sport than anything else, and are fonder of +tackling larger game. In the field, however, their colour is against +them, and makes them a good mark for the keeper's gun. I prefer seeing +black Tom in the parlour, or on a hosier's counter, or coiled up in a +draper's window. + +_Points_.--1. _Size_: You want them large--as large an possible, and +with great grace of motion. 2. _Head_: The head is medium-sized, and +not too bullety; a sharp nose, however, is an abomination in a black +cat. The ears must be rather longish, and shapely, and well-feathered +internally, and set _straight_ on. 3. _Eyes_: A brown eye is best, next +best is hazel, which in turn is better than green, but green is better +than yellow. 4. _Colour_: All black; not even a toe must be white, nor +_one hair of the whiskers_. 5. _Pelage_: A beautiful, soft, though not +too fine, fur, and inclining rather to length than otherwise, and as +sheeny as a boatman beetle. + +Points of the black cat. + +Size, 15. + +Head, 5. + +Eyes, 5. + +Colour, 15. + +Pelage, 10. + +Total, 50. + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +THE BLACK-AND-WHITE CAT AND THE PURE WHITE. + +I have been asked to give a few hints as to the best and most useful +classification for show purposes, and may as well do so here. For a +large show, the classes can hardly be better arranged than they are in +the Crystal Palace catalogue, or that of the Edinburgh or Glasgow Shows. +For smaller shows I beg to suggest the following:-- + +ONE. Long-haired cats, any colour, male or female. + +TWO. Short-haired black and black-and-white, and white. + +THREE. Short-haired tabbies, any colour. + +FOUR. Short-haired tortoiseshell and tortoise-and-white. + +FIVE. Anomalous, as Manx, etc. + +The first class would include Persian, Angora, and other long-haired +cats--black, white, tabby, or tortoiseshell. The third class would +include all tabbies--brown, red, and grey or silver. Class Four must +have tortoiseshell-and-white as well as tortoiseshell, or it will be a +small class, owing to the rarity of the pure tortoiseshell. The last +class will give a place to Manx, six-toed cats, wild cats, and hybrids, +as well as any curious foreign pussy that may be forthcoming. At all +shows you find a great many cats entered in the wrong class. I think it +a pity that secretaries don't arrange these in their proper classes; it +is not right to exclude merit through mistake. In judging, prizes +should be withheld where there is no competition; and where there is +want of merit in any one class, some of the prizes should be withdrawn +and added to any class of _extra_ merit. We come now to the +_black-and-white cat_. + +A good black-and-white cat is a very noble-looking animal. If +well-trained and looked after, you can hardly have a nicer parlour pet. +He is affectionate in his disposition, and cleanly and gentlemanly, so +to speak, and makes himself quite an ornament to a well-furnished +drawing-room. I must speak, however, of the demerits of my pets, as +well as of their good qualities, and feel constrained to say that I have +sometimes found black-and-white Tom a pussy who did not trouble himself +too much about his duties as house-cat; he much preferred the parlour to +the kitchen, a good bed to a hay-loft, and seemed to think that catching +mean little mice was far below his dignity. If well treated black and +white cats are apt to turn a little indolent and lazy, and if improperly +fed and housed, they degenerate into the most wretched-looking specimens +of felinity you ever looked upon. All the bad in their character comes +out, and their good qualities are forgotten. Their coat gets dry, and +tear, and are cinder-holed; and, instead of the plump, round-faced, +clerical-looking cat which used to adorn your parlour window, you have a +thin, emaciated, long-nosed, pigeon-loft-hunting, flower-unscraping, +dirty, disreputable dunghill cat. Of course, the same may, to a certain +extent, be said of most neglected cats, but the two breeds that show to +the least advantage, when ill-used, are the black-and-white and the +red-and-white, and more especially the former. + +_Merits_.--I like these cats more for their appearance than anything +else. When nicely marked they look reverend and respectable in the +extreme. I consider them but very ordinary pussies in regard to +house-hunting. A naval officer who cannot go to quarters without having +his hands encased in white kids, and a black-and-white cat, carry on +duty much on a par. Neither do these cats make over good children's +pets, being at times a little selfish. They are beautiful creatures, +nevertheless, and well worthy of a place at our parlour firesides. + +_Points_.--1. _Size_: As big as possible, but not leggy; reasonably +plump for the show-bench, but _very_ graceful in all their motions; with +stoutish short forelegs, and plenty of spring in the hindquarters. + +2. _Head_: The best black-and-white Toms have large, well-rounded +heads, with moderately long ears, and a well-pleased, self-contented +expression of face. The whiskers are usually white, but black is not +objectionable. The eyes are preferred green, and sparkling like +emeralds of the finest water. + +3. _Colour and markings_: The colour is black-and-white, with as much +of the former, and as little of the latter as you can find. I like to +see the nose and cheeks vandyked with white, the chin black, white +fore-paws, white hind legs and belly, and a white chest. This is all +that is needed for beauty's sake; but, at all events, the markings must +be even. + +4. _Pelage_: Fur should be longish (and I don't object to its being +ticked all over the back with longer white hairs), silky, and glossy. + +Points of the Black-and-White Cat. + +Size, 10. + +Head, 5. + +Colour and markings, 25. + +Pelage, 10. + +Total, 50. + +The next cat on the boards is the white cat. + +It is very remarkable--and most students of feline nature must have had +an opportunity of observing this--the great difference in the +temperament, constitution, and nature of cats, which colour alone, +apparently, has the power of truly indicating; and this is nowhere more +easily seen than in the peculiar characteristics of the pure black pussy +and the all-white one. The black cat, on the one hand, is bold, and +free, and fierce; the white, far from brave, more fond of petting and +society, and as gentle as a little white mouse. The black cat is full +of life and daring; the white of a much quieter and more loving +disposition. The black cat stands but little "cuddling;" the white +would like to be always nursed. It takes but little pains to teach a +black cat to be perfectly cleanly, but much more to train a pure white +one. In constitution the black cat is much more hardy and lasting, the +white cat being often delicate, and longing apparently for a sunnier +clime. A black cat is often afflicted with _kleptomania_, while a +properly-educated white puss is as honest as the day is long. + +The senses of the black cat are nearly always in a state of perfection, +while the white is often deaf, and at times a little blind. Again there +is nothing demoniacal about a white cat, as there often is about a black +one. I remember, when a little boy at the grammar school of Aberdeen, +receiving a box from the country containing lots of good things, and +marked, "A Present from Muffle"--Muffle was a pet tabby of mine--and, +childlike, replying in verse, the last lines of the "poem" being-- + + "And when at last Death's withering arms + Shall throw his mantle thee around, + May angel catties carry thee + To the happy hunting-ground." + +Well, a blue-eyed white pussy was my idea of an "angel cattie" then, and +it is not altered still. + +It will be observed, however, that the colour of the kittens of the same +litter will often differ, and the question naturally comes to be asked, +Do I assert that the nature and temperament of cats in the same litter +will not coincide? I do so aver most unhesitatingly; and the thing +is easily explained if you bear in mind that a litter of +differently-coloured kittens has had but _one_ mother, but _many_ +fathers. Although born from the same mother in one day, they stand in +the relation to each other of half-brothers and half-sisters. Except +when the odds in colour is very distinct, as in black, white, or red, +the difference in constitution, etc, will not be so easily perceived, +but it is there, nevertheless. _Colour follows the breed, and temper +and quality follow colour_. This is the same all throughout nature, and +is often observed, though but little studied, by dog fanciers. I have +only to remind pointer and setter men, how often hardiness and good +stamp cling to certain colours. That "God tempers the wind to the shorn +lamb," I believe to be merely metaphor, but I am ready to go to death on +it that He paints the petals of the flower and the blossoms on the +fruit-tree, to the requirements of the tender seedlings. What sort of +fruit would you grow in the dark, or under deeply-coloured glass shades? +Lest I be found guilty of digression, I shall say no more now on this +subject. + +_Merits of the White Cat_.--A _pet_, gentle and loving above a cat of +any other colour, though at times dull, and cross, and wayward; "given," +as a lady said, "to moods of melancholy." Not a bad mouser either, when +"i' th' vein," and a good cat for a miller to have, not being easily +seen among sacks of flour. + +_Points_.--1. _Size_: Seldom a large cat. 2. _Head_: Smallish, and as +nicely rounded as possible; ears not too long, and well-feathered +internally; eyes of "himmel-blue;" eyes ought to be both the same +colour--if not so, deduct five points. 3. _Pelage_: Fine, soft, and +glossy; but a too long coat shows a cross with Angora. 4. _Colour_: +White as driven snow, if intended for a show cat; if not, a very little +black wonderfully improves the constitution. + +Points of the White Cat. + +Size, 5. + +Head and eyes, 15. + +Colour, 25. + +Pelage, 5. + +Total, 50. + +CHAPTER SIX. + +THE BLUE CAT; AND TABBIES--RED, BROWN, SPOTTED, AND SILVER. + +The Blue cat: just one word about this pretty creature before passing on +to the Tabbies. Although she is called a blue cat, don't fancy for a +moment that ultramarine is anywhere near her colour, or himmel-blue, or +honest navy serge itself. Her colour is a sad slate-colour; I cannot +get any nearer to it than that. + +Apart from her somewhat sombre appearance, this cat makes a very nice +pet indeed; she is exceedingly gentle and winning, and I'm sure would do +anything rather than scratch a child. But the less children have to do +with her the better, for all that: for this simple reason--she is a cat +of delicate constitution--all that ever I knew were so, at least, and I +daresay my readers can corroborate what I say. + +_Merits_.--Their extreme gentleness is one merit, and their tractability +and teachability are others. A pure blue cat is very rare, and they are +greatly prized by their owners. + +_Points_.--1. _Size_: They are rather under-sized, never being much +larger than the pure tortoiseshell. + +2. _Head_: The head is small and round, and the eyes are prettiest when +of a beautiful orange-yellow. The nose should be tipped with black. + +3. _Pelage_: Moderately long and delightfully soft and sheeny. + +4. _Colour_: This is the principal point. It is, as I said, a nice +cool, slate-grey, and, like the black cat, our blue pussy must be all +one colour, without a hair of white anywhere. _Even her whiskers_ must +be of the same colour as her fur. + +Points of the Blue Cat. + +Size, 5. + +Head, 5. + +Pelage, 10. + +Colour, 30. + +Total, 50. + +We now come to the Tabbies--the real old English cats--the playmates of +our infant days and sharers of our oatmeal porridge. They are the +commonest of all cats, and justly so, too, for there is hardly anything +they don't know, and nothing they can't be taught, bar conic sections, +perhaps, the _Pons Asinorum_, and a few trifles of that ilk. You will +find a tabby cat wherever you go, and you will find her equally at home +wherever she is--whether sitting on the footstool on the cosy hearthrug, +singing duets with the tea-kettle; catching birds and rabbits in the +woods, or mice in the barn; conducting a concert for your especial +benefit on the neighbouring tiles at twelve o'clock at night; examining +the flower seeds you lately sowed in the garden to see if they are +budding yet; or locked, quite by accident, into the pigeon loft. + +The first cat of the Tabby kind which claims our attention is the Red or +Sandy Tabby. + +This is a very beautiful animal, and quite worthy of a place in the best +drawing-rooms in the land. Although they do not grow to the immense +size of some of our brown tabbies, still they are better hunters, much +fiercer, and of a hardier constitution. They much prefer out-of-door +sport, and will attack and slay even the polecat and weasel; and +instances have been known of their giving battle to the wild cat +himself. + +_Merits_.--They are the prettiest of pets, and the honestest of all cat +kind. They are such good ratters that neither mice nor rats will +frequent the house they inhabit. + +_Points_.--1. _Size_: They ought to be as large as possible, and not +clumsy; they are generally neater cats all over than the Brown Tabbies. + +2. _Head_: The head should be large and broad, with rather shortish +ears, well placed, and the face ought to beam with intelligence and good +nature. The eyes should be deep set, and a nice yellow colour. + +3. _Pelage_: The coat is generally short in nearly all the Tabbies, but +ought to be sleek and glossy. + +4. _Colour and markings_: The colour is a light sandy red, barred and +striped with red of a darker, deeper hue. No white. The stripes or +markings ought to be the same on both sides, and even the legs ought to +be marked with cross bars, and one beautiful swirl, at least, across the +chest. This is called the Lord Mayor's Chain, and when the cat has two, +give him extra points. + +Points of the Red Tabby. + +Size, 10. + +Head, 5. + +Colour and markings, 30. + +Pelage, 5. + +Total, 50. + +Next comes the Brown Tabby. + +This is the largest of all breeds of cats, fourteen, seventeen, and even +twenty pounds a common weight. They are also, when well marked and +striped, exceedingly beautiful. Of all cats they are the best adapted +for house-hunting, being less addicted to wandering than some breeds. + +_Merits_.--Their hunting proclivities. Their fondness for children is +sometimes quite remarkable. I have known many instances of Brown Tom +Tabbies, so fierce that scarce any one dare lay a finger on them +unscathed, but a little child of four years of age could do anything +with them, lug them about anyhow, and even carry them head down, over +its shoulder by the tail. They are, moreover, nice, loving, +kind-hearted pets, and exceedingly fond of their master and mistress. +They are the cats of all cats to make a family circle look cosy and +complete around the fire of a winter's night. + +_Points_.--1. _Size_: It will be observed below that I give fifteen +points for size. The bigger your Brown Tom Tabby is the better he +looks, _if_ the one-half of it isn't fat, for if so he won't be +graceful, and that is one essential point. I can find a Tabby at this +moment who weighs over twenty pounds, and who will spring from the +floor, without scrambling, mind you, clean on to the top of the parlour +door, and that is little short of seven feet. I like to see a tabby +with a graceful carriage then, and shortish in forelegs, with +beautifully well-fitted and rounded limbs, and with a tiger-like walk +and mien. + +2. _Head_: Very large and broad and round, ears short, eyes dark, and +muzzle broad, not lean, and thin and long. This latter certainly gives +him more killing power, but it brings him too near the wild cat. I +don't care how savagely he behaves in a cage at a show, for well I know +he is quite a different animal at his own fireside, asleep on the rug in +little Alice's arms, or purring in bed on old Maid Mudge's virgin bosom. + +3. _Colour_: A nice dark brown or grey ground, and the workings as +deeply black as possible. No white. + +4. _Markings_: Like a Bengal tiger, and even prettier. The tail and +legs likewise barred. The head striped perpendicularly down the brow, +and the marks going swirling round the cheeks. Nose black or brown, and +the eyes as dark as possible, and full of fire. + +5. _Pelage_: Short and glossy. + +Points of the Brown Tabby. + +Size, 15. + +Head, 5. + +Colour, 10. + +Markings, 15. + +Pelage, 5. + +Total, 50. + +Lastly, we have the Silver Tabby and the Spotted Tabby, and in almost +all points these may be judged alike. + +The Silver Tabby is a sweetly pretty cat. Perhaps the prettiest of all +pussies. They are a size smaller than even the best Red Tabbies, and +are infinitely more graceful, and quicker in all their motions. They +are proud, elegant, aristocratic cats, fond to love and quick to resent +an injury. + +_Merits_.--Their special merit is their exceeding beauty. They are +somewhat rare, however. Here is a bit of advice to any one who would +like to have four really pretty cats about the house, each to show the +others to advantage. Get a pure white kitten, a pure black one, a red +tabby, and a silver ditto. Take great care in the training of them, be +careful in feeding and housing them, and you will have your reward. + +The Spotted Tabby is also very pretty. He ought to be a good, sizeable +animal, with broad head, short ears, and a loving face; ground colour a +dark grey, one dark stripe, and down the spine, and diverging from this +stripes of black broken up into spots. + +_Points_.--The Silver Tabby ought to be-- + +1. _In size_, less than or about the size of the Red Tabby, and very +quick and graceful. + +2. _Head_: Large and shapely, but not so blunt as the Brown Tabby's; +ears short and eyes light. + +3. _Colour and markings_: Of a deep Aberdeen granite, grey in the +ground-work, and the markings very dark and beautifully arranged. Don't +forget the Mayor's Chains. + +4. _Pelage_: Longish, if anything; but not so long as to make the judge +suspect crossing with the Persian. + +Points of Silver and Spotted Tabbies. + +Size, 10. + +Head, 5. + +Colour and markings, 30. + +Pelage, 5. + +Total, 50. + +There are one or two fancy cats I have not mentioned, as the +Red-and-white, etc; but I believe I have said enough to make anyone, +with a little study and attention, a good judge of the points and +qualities of the different breeds of the English domestic cat. + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +ASIATIC CATS. + +When I was a little boy at school, floundering through Herodotus, and +getting double doses of fum-fum daily for my Anabasis--for my old +teacher, when he couldn't get enough Greek into one end of me, took +jolly good care to put it in at the other--there was no man I had +greater respect for than Alexander the Great, owing to his having done +that Gordian knot business so neatly. I practised afterwards on the +dominie's tawse (i.e., the fum-fum strap); I tied a splendid knot on it, +and then cut it through with a jack-knife; but, woe's me! the plaguy +dominie caught me in the very act, and--and I had to take my meals +standing for a week. + +But ever since then I have always been a don at knots; and I give myself +no small credit, whether you do or not, reader, for the dexterous manner +in which I have polished off the cat-classification knot. There it lay +before me, interminable, intricate, incensing; and bother the end could +I see to it at all at all. "Draw the sword of Scotland." Swish! There +it lies, the short-haired European pussies on the one hand, and the +Asiatic or long-haired on the other. + +Among these latter you will find exactly the same colours, and the same +variety of markings, as among the European cats proper. We give their +points in a general way. + +1. _Size_: The blue cats and the pure white are usually of the smallest +dimensions; next comes the black, and lastly the tabbies. Some of these +latter grow to immense sizes, and are animals of a beauty which is at +times magnificent. The cat that belonged to Troppman, the distinguished +French murderer, and now, or lately, possessed by Mr Hincks, of +Birmingham, is worth going a day's journey to behold. Yet, although +very large, they are very graceful, too, and can spring enormous +distances. Fierce enough, too, they can be when there is any occasion, +especially to strangers or dogs. + +2. _Head_: The heads of the white, blue, and black ought to be small, +round, and sweet, the expression of the countenance being singularly +kind and loving. The heads of the tabbies ought to be broad and large, +and not snouty. The whiskers of both ought to be very long, and of a +colour to match the general tone. The ears have this peculiarity--they +are slightly bent downwards and forwards, which gives rather a pensive +character to their beauty. They are, moreover, graced by the _aural +tuft_. The eyes must also match; and this is what I like to see--a blue +eye in a white Persian, a hazel in a black, and a lovely sea-green in a +tabby. + +3. The _Pelage_: The pelage is long (the longer the better), especially +around the neck and a-down the sides; and a good brush, gracefully +swirled and carried, is an essential point of beauty. The fur ought to +be as silken as possible; this shows that the cat is not only well-bred, +but well-fed and taken care of. + +4. _Markings_: They ought to be as distinct as possible, as pretty as +possible, and evenly laid on with reference to the two sides. + +5. _Colour_: All white in the pure white, all black in the black, and +so on with the other distinct colours; and for the tabbies the same +rules hold good as those given for short-haired tabbies. + +_General rules for judging Asiatic Cats_.--First scan your cats, +remembering the difference in size you are to expect in tabbies from the +others. Next see to the length and texture of the pelage--its +glossiness, and its freedom from cinder-holes, or the reverse. Then +note the colour, and the evenness or unevenness of the markings. The +head most be carefully noted, as to its size and shape, the colour of +the eyes and nose, ditto the whiskers; mark, too, the _lay_ of the ear, +and its _aural tuft_. In the tabbies the _Mayor's Chain_ should swirl +around the chest. Lastly, take a glance at the expression of face. + +_Merits of the Asiatic Cats_.--I think every cat-fancier will bear me +out in saying that, although more delicate in constitution than our +European short-hairs, and hardly so keen at mousing, ratting, or so +fierce in fighting larger game, there can be no doubt of it they make +far nicer pets. They are extremely affectionate and loving in their +dispositions, and so fond of other animals, such as dogs, pet rabbits, +guinea-pigs, etc. Their love for a kind master or mistress only ends +with life itself. Then they are so beautiful and so cleanly, and, if +kept in a clean room, take such care of their lovely pelage, that I only +wonder there are not more of them bred than there are. They are a +little more expensive at first. You can seldom pick up a good kitten at +a show under one pound sterling--but if you do succeed in getting one or +two nice ones, I am quite certain you will never have to repent it, if +you only do them ordinary justice. + +It will be well to end this chapter here; but before doing so, I beg to +make one or two remarks, which I feel sure will interest secretaries of +coming cat-shows. + +1. In all shows give the cats nice roomy pens, whether of wood or zinc. + +2. Attend well to the ventilation, and more especially to disinfection. + +3. Attend to the feeding, and, at a more than one-day show, cats ought +to have _water_ as well as milk. I think boiled lights, cut into small +pieces, with a very small portion of bullock's liver and bread soaked, +is the best food; but I have tried Spratt's Patent Cat Food with a great +number of cats, both of my own and those of friends, and have nearly +always found it agree; and at a cat-show it would, I believe, be both +handy and cleanly. + +4. On no account let the pussies lie on the bare wood or zinc, but +provide each with a cushion of some sort, and have a small box filled +with earth or sand, in each pen. _Sawdust in a cat's cage is an +abomination_. It soils the fur, and gets into the food-dish, and +renders pussy simply miserable. + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +ON DIET, DRINK, AND HOUSING. + +"Throw physic to the dogs," said the immortal William. That was a good +many years ago, and dogs then were of very little value, and little used +either to physic or good treatment; but nowadays we have found out that +the possession of even a cat, entails upon us the duty and +responsibility of seeing she is well cared for while in health, and +properly treated in sickness. I recommended small doses of quinine and +steel to an unwell pussy the other day. + +"Ma conscience!" cried her owner; "gie medicine to a cat! Wha ever +heard o' the like?" + +I'm sorry that woman was Scotch, but glad to say I reasoned even her +round, and her cat is now as sleek and lively as the day is long. + +Most, if not all the diseases which feline flesh is heir to, are brought +on by bad feeding, starvation, or exposure to the weather, especially +the cruel custom many people have of leaving their poor cats out all +night, to seek for food and shelter for themselves. These are the cats +who make night hideous with their howling, who tear up beautiful +flowerbeds, rob pigeon-lofts, murder valuable rabbits, and, in a general +way, do all they can to bring into disrepute the whole feline race. I +declare to you honestly, there is as much difference between one of +these night-prowlers and a well-cared-for cat, as there is between one +of the lean and mangy curs who do scavengers' duty in Cairo, and a +champion Scottish Collie. + +Some men will tell you that it is unmanly to love or care for a cat; +just as if it _could_ be unmanly to love anything that God made and +gifted with sagacity, wisdom, and undying love for all the human race! +But I can point you out scores of men who are good sportsmen, fearless +huntsmen, and fond of every manly sport--ay, and men, too, who are at +home on the stormiest ocean, and never pale when fired upon in anger-- +who can both pride and prize a favourite cat. At Exeter, not long +since, out of thirty-nine owners of cats, all were men except nine, and +of these nine seven were married, and the two others were young ladies, +while the owner of the first-prize cat _was a gallant soldier_. So much +for the notion that only old maids care for cats. + +Before going on to describe the diseases which afflict pussydom, we must +give a few general instructions regarding her treatment while well. + +And first, as to her food. Pussy will catch a mouse, and after playing +with it for half an hour in a way which is very cruel, but no doubt +makes it very tender, she will generally kill and eat it; but it by no +means follows that mice are the cat's natural food. The majority of +cats catch mice more for the love of sport than anything else. Nothing, +therefore, is more cruel than to starve poor pussy, with the erroneous +idea that it will make her a good mouser; it is just the reverse. My +Phiz bids me say that mice-catching is long, weary, anxious work at the +best, and she is quite certain she would die if compelled to make a +living at it. + +Feed your pussy well, then, if you would have her be faithful and +honest, and keep your house clear of mice and rats. + +I have lived a good deal in apartments in my time, and I have always +avoided places where there was a lean and hungry-looking cat. It is a +sure sign of irregularity and bad housekeeping. + +Twice a day is often enough, but not too often, to feed your cat, and it +is better to let her have her allowance put down to her at once, instead +of feeding her with tid-bits. Nothing can be better for pussy's +breakfast than oatmeal porridge and sweet milk. _Entre nous_, reader, +nothing could be better for your own breakfast. Oatmeal is the food of +both mind and matter, the food of the hero and the poet; it was the food +of Wallace, Bruce, and Walter Scott, and has been the food of brave men +and good since their day. + + "Oh! were I able to rehearse + Scotch oatmeal's praise in proper verse, + I'd blaw it oot as loud and fierce, + As piper's drones could blaw, man." + +But I cannot wonder for a single moment at this favourite Scottish food +being in disrepute in England, because hardly anyone knows how to make +it. Our cook at sea once undertook to supply our mess with a daily +matutinal meal of porridge, and of oatcakes too. He was sure he could +make them, because his "father had once lived in Scotland." +Nevertheless, I gave him some additional information, and we, the +Scottish officers, of whom there were two or three besides myself, were +in high glee, and took an extra turn on deck the first morning, to give +us a good appetite for the great coming double event. Then down we +bolted to our porridge. Porridge! save the name, such a slimy, thin, +disgusting mess you never saw! Well might our chief engineer call out: + +"Tak' it awa', steward, tak' it awa'; it would scunner (sicken) the +de'il himsel'!" + +"But, hurrah!" I cried, "there's the oatcakes to come. Steward, where +are the oatcakes?" + +The steward lifted the cover from the dish on which was wont to repose +our delicious "'spatch cock," or savoury curry, and there, lo and +behold! half-a-dozen things of the shape and thickness of a ship's +biscuit, black, and wet, and steaming, and we were supposed to eat them +_with a knife and fork_! Meanwhile the ham and eggs were fast +disappearing among the Englishmen at the other end of the table, and we +poor Scots had to go without our breakfast, and get laughed at into the +bargain. + +But here, now, I'll tell you what I'll do for you, as Cheap Jack says-- +I'll give you a receipt by which you shall live a hundred years, and +begin your second century a deal stronger than you began your first. +Buy your meal from the meal-shop--no, not the chemist, my dear--taste it +to make sure it has no "nip;" see, also, that it is fresh, and not +ground before Culloden, and buy it neither too fine nor too round, but +just a _happy medium_. Having thus caught your hare, so to speak, go +home with it, and put a saucepan on a clear fire, with a pint of +beautiful spring-water, into which throw a teaspoonful, or more, of +salt, and a dessert spoonful of oatmeal. This is essential. Then sit +down and read till the water boils. Now take your "spurckle" or +"whurtle" in your right hand--I don't know the English of "spurckle" or +"whurtle," but it is a round piece of wood, rather thicker than your +thumb and not so long as your arm, and you never see it silver-mounted-- +and commence operations. You stir in the meal very gradually, to +prevent its getting knotted, and you occasionally pause to let it boil a +moment, and you continue this until the porridge is quite thick, and the +bubbles rise into small mountains ere they escape, with a sound between +a "whitch" and a "whirr," which is in itself a pleasure to listen to. +And now it is ready, and you have only to pour it into a large +soup-plate, sprinkle a little dry oatmeal over the top of it, and set it +aside until reasonably cold. You eat it with a spoon--not a fork--and +with nice sweet milk. "A dish fit for a king," you say; "A dish fit for +the gods!" I resound. Now, having told you all this, I feel I have +well deserved of my country; and I'm not above accepting--a hamper at +any time. + +Bread-and-milk, soaked, is the next best thing for pussy; and at dinner +you must let her have a wee bit of meat. Lights, boiled and cut in +pieces, are best, but horseflesh isn't bad; but you mustn't give her too +much of either, or you will induce diarrhoea. Give her fish, +occasionally, as a treat. If pussy is a show cat, a little morsel of +butter, given every day, after dinner, will make her dress her jacket +with surprising regularity. + +Now, as to what she drinks, a well-bred cat is always particular, and at +times even fastidious; but two things they must have--water and milk. +They will often prefer the former to the latter. _But do keep their +dishes clean_. Disease is often brought on from neglect of this +precaution. Cats will drink tea or beer, and I have seen a Tom get as +drunk as a duke on oatmeal and whisky. An old lady, an acquaintance of +mine, has a fine red-and-white Tom, and whenever he is ailing she gives +him "just a leetle drop o' brandy, sir." Tom, I think, must have had +two little drops o' brandy yesterday, when he rode my fox-terrier, +Princie, all round the paddock. Those naughty drops o' brandy! + +Just one word about housing. There is no more objectionable practice +than that of turning your cat out of doors at night, and none more +certain to engender disease and spoil your pussy's morals. If you have +taken the least pains to train your cat to habits of cleanliness, she +will never misbehave herself. Keep her in at night, then, and you'll +have her in health; keep her in if you want to run no risk of getting +her poisoned; keep her in, and the neighbours will bless you. Don't +lock her into a room, though, unless she has an attic to herself. Let +her have the run of the house from basement to roof. Give pussy a bed +to lie on, or let her find one for herself, which she has a happy knack +of doing, as I daresay more than one of my readers can testify. My +pretty Phiz needn't have kittened in my cocked hat, nevertheless. + +So much, then, for the prevention of disease. We will now come to +diseases themselves. But just let me impress upon your mind, reader, +this fact--that attention to your pussy's housing, drink, and the +cleanliness and regularity of her diet, will almost certainly prevent +her from getting sick. + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE DISEASES OF CATS. + +Before describing the management and treatment of feline ailments, I may +as well mention that there are three different plans usually adopted for +giving a cat medicine. Pussy must first and foremost be caught--not +always an easy job, as the little creature is fond of hiding away when +ill. Take her on your knee, and, as you gently soothe her, envelope +her, all save the head, in a woollen shawl, and then place her in some +one else's arms to hold. Now, if it is a pill or small bolus it must be +dipped in oil, and placed well down behind the tongue, and towards the +roof of the mouth; if it is a powder, it may simply be placed on the +tongue; but the better plan is to mix it first with a little treacle or +glycerine; thirdly, if it is a fluid, the mouth must be held well open, +and the medicine poured down the throat out of a small phial, but only a +few drops at a time. + +If your cat is suffering from any severe illness, such as bronchitis, +and you value her, set aside a garret or lumber-room for her +accommodation, for quiet is essential to her recovery. Arrange her bed +as common sense tells you will best suit her comfort; don't forget to +let her have plenty of clean water to drink, and a large box of garden +mould in the far corner of the room. There is only one other little +matter, which must not be overlooked--and, with this, pussy's little +hospital is complete--Grass. + +_Grass_.--This is the natural medicine of both cat and dog. In large +doses, it acts as an emetic; in smaller, as a purgative; its mode of +action being similar in both cases, namely, mechanical irritation of the +muscular and mucous coats of the alimentary canal; this causing +spasmodic contraction of the stomach, or increasing the peristaltic +motions of bowel. Grass also possesses valuable antiscorbutic +properties, and the cat, either in sickness or health, should never want +a supply of it. + +If pussy has been out all night at a feline entertainment on the tiles, +and the excitement has produced constipation, her remedy is grass. If +she has made too free in the aviary, and the feathers of the Norwich +cock lie unpleasantly on her stomach, grass is her cure; or if she, at +any time, feels hot or feverish, out into the garden she goes, and a +little grass, taken at intervals, soon makes her feel as fresh as the +lark. + +Don't let your cat want grass, then; if you live in a town, and she has +some difficulty in getting it, either procure it for her yourself, or, +what is better, get a boxful of earth, and sow it, and call it pussy's +garden. Now for pussy's ailments. + +_Mange_.--All skin diseases in the cat, whether pustular, papular, or +squamous, may be, for convenience' sake, called _mange_. Cats are very +subject to skin diseases, especially long-haired ones, and those who +have been the subjects of bad or careless treatment; for they are always +brought about by poverty of the blood, from under-feeding, or surfeit +from over-eating on dainties. Now I must warn the cat-fancier that +there is no _specific_ for the cure of mange in the cat, and that the +cure will take weeks, and at times even months; he must therefore make +up his mind either to destroy the cat at once, or set about curing her +in earnest. Attend, in the first place, to her diet. It must be +nourishing, but not heating; plenty of good milk, and no meat, unless +she be very thin, when raw meat in small quantities may be given twice a +day. Dress the skin with carbolic oil, washing her carefully next day; +then try equal parts of sulphur-ointment and green iodide of mercury +ointment, mixed with an equal bulk of lard. Give her arsenic +internally--one drop of the _Liquor arsenicalis_ twice a day, in milk, +for a week, then thrice a day for another week, when you must omit it +for a day or two, and then begin again. At the same time give her, once +or twice a week, a little sulphur. Placing brimstone-roll in a cat's +drinking-water is all a mistake, and does no good at all. Sometimes the +disease will only yield to a course of iodide of potash. Give her +half-grain or whole-grain doses, made into little boluses with +breadcrumbs--which any chemist can make for you--twice a day. + +_Ulcers_.--Cats are liable to a variety of these, but they can best and +most conveniently be described as of two sorts--_constitutional_ and +_accidental_. The first are the most difficult to cure, and are usually +found on the toes or feet. Confine the cat to the house for a term; any +simple ointment, such as that of zinc, will do for a dressing, as it +will not hurt her if she licks it. Put her on a course of arsenic, as +recommended above; give her, once a week, one grain of calomel, or two +or three grains of grey powder and a little sulphur; and, if the sores +appear sluggish, touch them once a day with blue-stone or nitrate of +silver. Feed her well and regularly. + +_Accidental ulcers_ are generally the result of scratches and wounds +received in the hunting-field, or during some slight difference of +opinion with the pussy over the way. They require no internal +treatment. If they look angry, bathe in warm water, or milk and water, +and use, occasionally, a little lotion of sulphate of zinc--ten grains +to four ounces of water, to which add one drachm of tincture of +lavender. If the sores are sluggish, and indisposed to heal kindly, +truss the cat in the shawl, and cauterise with nitrate of silver; +afterwards dress with the mildest mercurial ointment. + +_Inflammation of the eyes_ is generally the result of injury or cold +caught from exposure. It may be confined to one eye, or may attack +both. In either case the treatment is the same. Begin by the use of a +purgative--say two or three grains of compound jalap-powder mixed in +glycerine, and given in the morning; give nothing but bread-and-milk to +eat, and let the cat have a little sulphur mixed with butter or lard +every second day. The external treatment consists in bathing frequently +with warm water or weak green tea, and the following lotion, may +afterwards be used with advantage: two grains of sulphate of zinc to an +ounce of water, or one grain of nitrate of silver to the same quantity +of _aqua pura_. + +_Simple Maladies_.--If you are fond of your cat you will naturally +easily know when she is getting out of sorts or going to be ill. When +you observe, then, from her appearing dull and apathetic, refusing her +food, taking to dark corners, or sleeping all day, without attempting to +go out of doors; and, especially if her coat is dry; catch her at once, +and give her an emetic. Try a little salt and water first, and, if that +will not act, two grains of sulphate of zinc will, given in luke-warm +water. Afterwards administer as much castor-oil as you would give to a +baby, or two or three grains of grey powder. Such treatment, taken in +time, will often have the effect of cutting short a serious illness. + +_Operations_.--Never hesitate to open an abscess if you think, or +rather, if you are about half sure, there is matter in it. Afterwards +foment with warm water. Poultices are unhandy. If the cat's leg has +been severely lacerated and broken in a trap, and there seems little +likelihood of its being able to heal, cut it off. Do it quietly, +gently, and firmly; the ragged edge of the bone may be sawn off with a +table-knife made into a saw with a file. (I cut a man's finger off the +other day with the same instrument. About a fortnight after, the +commander, sitting at luncheon, made the innocent remark: "This knife is +rather blunt, steward. I'm hanged!" he roared, immediately after, as he +dashed the knife through the open port, "I'm hanged if it isn't the +doctor's saw!") + +Be sure to leave enough flesh to form a flap to cover the bone; stop the +bleeding with the actual cautery, then sew up and dress the wound in +sticking plaster; only leave room for the egress of matter. Painful +operations of this sort are always better performed under chloroform. + +Lay the cat on her side (rolled in the shawl) on some one else's knee, +pour a little chloroform into a handkerchief, and hold it _near, not on_ +pussy's nose, or you will smother her. As soon as one portion of the +chloroform gets evaporated supply its place with more; in from five to +ten minutes pussy will be in the land of nod. + +_Consumption_.--Consumption in the cat is curable, because it is not +necessarily disease of the lungs. The term is used to denote all sorts +of wasting disease in which pussy falls away in flesh, in coat, and in +general health. The treatment must be careful--regulation of the diet +and attention to her housing, an occasional mild purgative and dose of +sulphur-butter. You may give her raw meat steeped in wine if she will +take it; but remember your great sheet-anchor in the care of all these +cases is _cod-liver oil_, a dessert spoonful every day, or even more. +And you may supplement the treatment most advantageously by giving, +twice a day, the sixth of a grain of quinine. + +One word of warning to cat-fanciers before I close this chapter. _Never +ask a veterinary surgeon about your cat_. Their knowledge of canine +ailments is vastly behind the times; their knowledge of cat diseases is +simply and literally _carte blanche_. If you want your pussy killed or +tormented to death, _go to a chemist_. The chemists in this country, +through their ignorance, and impudent assumption of medical knowledge, +slay their thousands annually. Their ignorant patients, however, go +with their eyes open, and place themselves in chemists' hands. Well, as +a paternal government refuses to protect the people, let the chemists go +ahead and poison away; but, if warning of mine will be heard and heeded, +they shall not poison our pussies too. + +CHAPTER TEN. + +DISEASES OF CATS--CONTINUED. + +Probably one of the commonest and most distressing of complaints in the +cat is _diarrhoea_; and what makes it all the more distressing, is the +fact that, instead of receiving sympathy and good treatment in her +distress, she is often harshly treated, kicked about, and thrust out of +doors. + +Diarrhoea is usually brought about by want of regular feeding, by +improper food, and exposure to wet and cold. Different sorts of food +will also induce it--such as rancid horseflesh, sour milk, an +over-allowance of fat or liver. If taken at once, the treatment is +generally very successful; if let go on too long, the cat will rapidly +lose flesh; and the advent of dysentery will make it a charity to put +her out of the way. + +Give her at first a small teaspoonful of castor-oil, to which add two +drops of solution of muriate of morphia. This will often stop it, and +remove all offending matter from the intestines. If there is no +improvement, repeat the dose on the second morning, and give small doses +of common chalk mixture three times a day, with two drops of laudanum +divided between the three doses. Let her have nothing but bread and +milk to eat, or a little corn-flour, if she will take it; if not, give +her fish--she won't refuse that. + +A few drops of solution of lime added to her milk will do good. + +If she be very much reduced in weight, and has no appetite, try two +grains of quinine made into twelve pills with breadcrumb: dose, one +three times a day. Or you may give cod-liver oil. + +_Dysentery_ is a frequent sequel to badly-treated diarrhoea. It is +simply ulceration of the coats of the bowels, combined with great +emaciation, roughness of coat, dejected look, and loss of appetite. +Unless a very valuable cat, I would not advise you to keep her alive. +You may, however, with patience, bring her round. Give her, then, a +grain or two of calomel occasionally, and quinine three times a day, +unless she exhibits any tendency to fits. House her well, and give her +the most generous of diet--raw meat, eggs, etc, and a little port wine +daily, or even a small quantity of brandy. + +_Gastritis_, or inflammation of the stomach, is by no means rare in the +cat, and is frequently the result of poison having been given with the +hope of causing death. The cat simply pines, and gets thin, and refuses +nearly all food, which, when she does eat, causes pain, sickness, and +vomiting. The bowels, too, are often disordered. There is nothing +better, in these cases, than the tris-nitrate of bismuth, from one to +three grains to be placed on the tongue twice or thrice daily. You may +also give occasionally a grain or two of calomel with a little rhubarb +powder. + +If there is much emaciation, cod-liver oil may be tried, and a small +allowance of raw meat, cut into little bits; and quinine. + +_Bronchitis_.--This is a much more common and dangerous disease than is +generally supposed. It often attacks cats at a particular age--say, six +or eight months--and, indeed, is somewhat analogous to distemper in the +dog. It is ushered in by the usual symptoms of a bad cold--staring +coat, watery eyes, and a slight cough. If the disease be confined to +the lining membranes of the nose and throat, there will be but little +cough, but it usually attacks the bronchi (windpipes) themselves. There +is pain, a slight swelling of the nose, and mattery exudation from both +nose and eyes. After a few days of the acute comes _the chronic stage_. +Pussy is now a very wretched and unhappy little object indeed. She +wanders about the house coughing continually, with her little tongue +protruding. She gets rapidly thin, and refuses all food; and, if not +attended to, generally seeks some quiet, dark corner in which to die. + +_Treatment_.--Great good can be done in the first stage by hot +fomentations applied across the face. These must be frequent, or they +are of no avail. Keep pussy indoors, and at first let her diet be low-- +simply bread and milk, and occasionally fish. Give her castor-oil +alone, if there is no diarrhoea; if there is, add to the dose two drops +of solution of muriate of morphia. + +As the disease gets chronic, and pussy begins to lose flesh, do +everything you can to support her strength by beef-tea, nourishing food, +and wine. If the cough is troublesome, get her the following, +compounded by your own chemist:--R. Extr. conii, Pil. scillae, co. aa., +gr. xv.; Camph., gr. xx. Mix and make into twenty-four pills, and give +one night and morning. + +Latterly give cod-liver oil to complete the cure, which, in this case, +will act like magic. + +If the mange is present in any shape, it must be carefully seen to as +directed under that heading. + +_Fits_.--These are by no means uncommon among our domestic cats. They +are of various kinds--fainting fits, delirious fits, and convulsive +fits. + +The former are usually caused by weakness, exposure to the weather, and +general ill-treatment, or loss of blood. All that is required during +the fit is rest and exposure to a current of cool air. After the fit +you ought to set about getting pussy's bodily health into better +condition by good food, tonics, and oil. + +_Delirious_ fits are those in which the poor cat, through mental or +bodily suffering, apparently goes wild, dashing madly through the house, +springing through a window, and finally hiding herself away in some dark +corner. You must catch her and put her into a quiet room, and do all +you can to soothe her. Apply smelling-salts to the nostrils, and bleed. +This operation is easily performed by making a puncture through any of +the small veins inside the ear, and fomenting in hot water. An emetic-- +if the cat is not insensible--will, in all probability, do good, as, +both in the delirious and convulsive fits, the stomach and bowels are +generally out of order. + +_Convulsive Fits_.--The cat emits a cry as of pain and terror, and falls +down on her side, foaming at the mouth, and with convulsive motions of +all the limbs, accompanied with cries and moans. Usually ends in a +delirious fit. During the fit do nothing at all, except prevent pussy +from injuring herself or any one else; and do this gently and firmly. A +pinch of snuff or smelling-bottle applied to the nose can do no harm. +Afterwards bleed, and keep her in a quiet, cool room, and treat as for +the delirious fit above described. When pussy has recovered--and +especially if she has had a succession of fits--something ought to be +done to prevent their recurrence. If too fat, you must reduce her by +lowering her diet, and giving a little sheep's liver and milt two or +three times a week. If too thin, tonics and raw meat must be given, and +cod-liver oil every morning. If, in spite of this, the fits recur, you +must have recourse to such an alterative as the following, which has +done good in many such cases:--R Bromid. potass., gr. xv.; Iod. potass., +Zinci sulph., aa., gr. v. Mix with moist breadcrumb, and make twenty +boluses, of which the dose is one night and morning. + +_Jaundice_.--Called also the yellows. The disease can hardly be +mistaken. It is characterised by general feverishness, loss of +appetite, a disposition to "lie about," and by vomiting of a bright +yellow or green fluid, covered with froth. + +The skin, eyes, and lips are also tinged with yellow. It is often fatal +if not attended to in time. + +I give, to begin with, a very small teaspoonful of Glauber salts, +diluted with plenty of water. It acts as a purgative or emetic, I don't +care which. If the vomiting continues, try a few grains of white +bismuth placed on the tongue, or take three drops of creosote, and five +of aromatic powder, and form into ten pills, with breadcrumb. _Dose_, +one three times a day. For four or five nights running give one grain +of calomel on the tongue. But watch the symptoms, and omit for a night +or two, if it causes too much purging. If not, you can give a small +dose of castor-oil in the morning. + +As she gets well, strengthen her, and encourage her appetite with +quinine first--no wine--and, after a week or two, with raw meat and +cod-liver oil. + +_Milk Fever_.--Only cat-fanciers will believe that poor pussy suffers, +at times, the most cruel tortures, from the thoughtless practice of +depriving her of her kittens all at once. Either this or cold usually +produces milk fever. I need not describe it; it being synchronous with +the suckling season will be sufficient to enable even a tyro to diagnose +it. If the cat is very much excited, and partially or wholly delirious, +bleeding must be resorted to, and afterwards give a castor-oil +purgative, with three or four drops of the compound tincture of camphor, +and keep her in a quiet room. At the same time, the swollen and painful +teats must be frequently fomented with warm water. + +Never take a cat's kittens away all at once, but always leave one at +least. If she has five, and you mean to drown four, drown two one day +and two the next, so that the first milk may be well drawn off. + +I have not mentioned half the ills that feline flesh is heir to, but I +think I have said sufficient to indicate the _general plan of treatment_ +of cat diseases. Let me only just repeat that if you use your pussy +well in the matter of housing, food, and drink--bar accidents--you will +never have her ill at all. + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +TRICKS AND TRAINING. + +Before going on to speak of the training of youthful pussy, there is one +subject which deserves a word or two at least--namely, the humane +destruction of cats, when such destruction becomes necessary. + +Kittens, at least, people have often to get rid of, or the whole world +would be peopled with cats, and that would hardly do. Although I am no +advocate for the rash and hasty condemnation of the sickest cat that +ever is, still, I must confess that, at times, to destroy a cat is to be +merciful to it. + +Never give kittens poison, it is cruel in the extreme; you might +chloroform them to death, but one doesn't like to waste much time in +taking life, if merely a kitten's; the pail is always handy, and the +poor wee things don't really suffer much if you do it properly. Always +sink them, and keep the pail for three hours, after which bury them at +once. I'll give you an example of the wrong way of doing things. Miss +M--n, who lived not a stone's throw from where I now write, and who is +an old maid (and may a merciful Providence keep her so!), was changing +her residence last month, and at the last moment thought she couldn't be +bothered with more than one of her kittens--little Persian beauties, +whom she had let live a whole month--so one was snatched from its +mother's arms, and pitched carelessly into a pail of water. She never +heeded its cries, nor the mother's piteous appeal to save her offspring; +so presently kitty was dead, to all appearance, and the bucket was +emptied over the wall into an adjoining field. This was at eleven +o'clock in the morning, and late that evening some boys, in passing, +were attracted to the spot by plaintive mews, and there they found the +kitten crawling in the grass, with sadly swollen body and inflamed +mouth. The boys drowned and buried it, being more humane than old maid +M--n. + +If necessity, then, compels you to part by death with an old cat, and +probably an old friend and favourite, I do not advise you to have her +drowned. It is cruel in many ways; there is the catching of her, the +putting of her into the sack with the stone, and the march to the +waterside, the cat knowing all the while what is to happen, and that her +mistress ordered her death. Do not drown her. If there is any one you +can really trust, that you are sure knows the difference between a gun +and a washing-stick, by all means have her shot. It is over in a +moment. The next best plan is to administer morphia. Don't grudge her +a good dose--five or even ten grains. Cats are wonderfully tenacious of +life, but they can't stand that. Make the morphia into a pill, with a +little of the extract of liquorice, and force it down the throat. Pussy +will sleep the sleep that knows no waking, and you will have the +satisfaction of knowing she did not suffer. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Apart from teaching a cat tricks, which tend to amuse children or older +folks, there is a training which every pussy needs when young--viz, to +be cleanly and honest. For some weeks after the kitten has been taken +from its mother, and gone to its new abode, a flower-pot saucer filled +with sand, or, what is better, a small box of garden mould, must be +placed in a particular corner of the room, and the kitten taught to go +there; two or three lessons are usually sufficient. By degrees wean her +from the box, and teach her to go out of doors. + +As to teaching her the difference between _meum_ and _tuum_, I maintain, +with all cat-fanciers, that cats are honest by nature, although they +may, at times, be tempted to steal a herring, or take a slight liberty +with the canary. The great secret is to feed pussy well, and be kind to +her; you may then let her sit on the table, or even extend to her the +liberty of the press. Depend upon it she will never do anything to +deserve disfranchisement. + +If ever you catch pussy tripping, chastise her; but don't forget this, +you must do so only very moderately, or in the fright she will forget +what she is being whipped for. A little bit of whalebone is the best +thing to use, but take care you do not hit her about the head. I have +often known cats severely chastised for what they were quite innocent +of. One pussy, I remember, used to be thrashed every day for a whole +week for a certain act of impropriety, and it turned out, after all, +that Charley, the black-and-tan, was the real culprit. She took it out +of Charley, however. She whipped him upstairs, and she whipped him +down, and finally she whipped him over the window, which was two storeys +high. Poor Charley was much hurt, and didn't turn up again for a +fortnight. + +Would you have your cat a good mouser? Then _feed her regularly_ and +liberally; I assure you, madam, that is the whole secret. + +Cats, when young, can be taught a whole host of amusing tricks. + +The most graceful of these is, perhaps, leaping heights. A cat that has +had constant exercise at this sort of thing will spring almost +incredible distances. The best plan to train her to this is to attach a +hare's foot to the end of a rod and set it in motion for her. You can +every day place it a little higher, and she will soon take to it +naturally. Cats thus trained will climb the tallest trees, and leap +from branch to branch like squirrels. + +By holding your arms in front of pussy you will soon teach her to leap +backwards and forwards over them. As she gets older, increase the +distance of your arms from the ground, until at last you place them +right over your head, and pussy will go over and through like any old +steeple-chaser. + +You may teach her to go through a hoop, or hoops, held at any elevation, +and in all conceivable positions. Remember always to speak kindly to +her when teaching her anything. Never chastise her; and when she has +performed her little feat to your satisfaction, make much of her, and +give her a morsel of fish, or any favourite food. + +Cats are easily taught to fish in this manner: take them when young to a +shallow stream, on a clear day, where the minnows are plentiful, and +throw in a dead one or two, and encourage the cat to catch them. She +will soon be after the living ones. + +I had a cat that I taught to retrieve like a dog, and to fetch and +carry. The same cat had for its constant companion my cheeky little +starling, who used to hop about and on her, pick her teeth, and open her +claws, but she never attempted to molest him. + +You can teach your cat to follow you like a dog, and take long walks +with you, and to come to you whenever you call her by whistling. + +I have told you how to make your cat a good mouser, now I'll give you +another wrinkle--how to make her a good trickster--_love her_ and take +an interest in all her little performances, and you will be surprised at +the amount of tricks she will learn. + +Without reference to the accomplishments of performing cats, who require +a special education, I may here enumerate just a few of the many simple +performances, which, with firmness, gentleness, and patience, you may +easily teach any cat of ordinary brain calibre. A cat may be taught to +beg like a dog; to embrace you; to pat your nose or your neighbour's +nose when told--(N.B. It's just as well it should _always_ be your +neighbour's nose)--to down charge; to watch by a mouse's hole; to stand +in a corner on her hind legs; to move rhythmically to music; to mew when +told; to shut her eyes when told; to leap six or eight feet through a +hoop or over your head; to feign sleep; to feign death; to open or shut +a door; to ring the bell; to fish; to swim, and retrieve either in the +water or on the land. + +I have a cat who, if I hold her up in front of the map of London, will +place her paw upon any principal building I like to name. The cat has +been used to be carried round the room to catch flies on the wall. The +principal buildings in the map are marked with square black spots, which +she naturally mistakes for flies, so you have only to hold her in front +of the map nearest to the spot you want her to touch, and slightly +elevate your voice when you name the place, and the thing is done. + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +AGREMENS OF CAT LIFE. + +Before we can thoroughly understand the ways and habits of any animal, +we must try, in a manner, to put ourselves in that animal's place, and +thus be able to study life from its point of view. + +I don't believe that God made any creature to be otherwise than happy, +and He has endowed each member of His creation with just that amount of +reason and instinct which shall enable it to find its food and a place +to rest in, make love in its own way, marry after its own fashion--by +civil contract--bring up its young, and, in a word, be generally jolly. +I found a poor bee this morning getting drowned in the water-butt. +"Yes," I said, "I'll save your life, but I will give you as a treat to +my pet spider." Man has the proposing, but not the disposing. I laid +my bee for one moment on the edge of the butt to dry, when whirr! away +he darted through the bright morning sunshine, and my spider had to be +content with a bluebottle for breakfast. This spider, I may tell you, +is a very large and beautiful specimen, striped and marked like a silver +tabby. He lives in an outhouse, and has a web, the network of which is +a yard in diameter, with goodness knows how many feet of tack, and +sheet, and stay, and guy. And a very amusing rascal he is, and not a +bit afraid of me. Nearly every day, I give him a bee with the sting +out. (It is in the kaleidoscope of events; that some day I may leave +the sting in, just to see how he feels it.) I place the bee in the web, +and it is amusing to see how quickly my friend shins up the rigging--he +catches the bee by the shoulders, and makes him spin for a few seconds +like a top, till he is completely enveloped in a gauzy shroud, and there +is a big hole in the web. I tell my spider he shouldn't make a hole in +the web. "Never mind that," he replies, "soon make that all right," and +sure enough next morning the web is nicely repaired, and the bee nearly +eaten. I don't think he eats all the bee himself. I am convinced that +he has a little wife who lives somewhere in a corner, and that every day +he is careful to send her a leg, or a wing, or a bit of the breast. +Well, he is happy, I know. Hadn't he a nice private house, without rent +or taxes, maybe a wife, and a thriving business, to say nothing at all +about the bee. I have studied cats as I have studied that spider. I +have imagined myself that spider. I have been, or imagined myself to +be, a cat--a Tom, you know, and I can fully understand a pussy's life +and a pussy's joys and sorrows. + +"How different," I thought, as I mused one morning under a tree, "is the +life of a cat from that of a dog. I'm the parson's cat to be sure, but +then I'm my own master. Now, there is the parson's Saint Bernard dog, +Dumpling for instance,--an honest, contented fellow enough, but, bless +you, he isn't free. _I_ am. Dumpling can't do as he pleases. I can. +I can go to bed when I like, rise when I like, and eat and drink, when, +where, or what I choose. Dumpling _can't_. Really I feel I can forgive +Dumpling for chasing me into the apple-tree last Sunday when I think of +the dull life the dog leads, and how few are his joys compared to mine. +Poor Dumpling needs servants to wait upon him, and he can't even walk a +couple of miles, and make sure of his way home, or sure of not getting +into a row, or not getting stolen, or something else equally ridiculous. +The other day Dumpling actually sat on the door-step for two hours in +the rain, till his great shaggy coat was wet through and through, +because, forsooth, he didn't know how to get the door opened. Would I +have done that? No. I should have walked up politely to the first +kind-faced passenger, and asked that passenger to `be good enough to +ring this bell for me, please, 'cause I ain't big enough,' and the thing +would have been done. Could Dumpling unlatch a door or catch a mouse? +Could he climb a tree and rob a sparrow's nest? or could he find his way +home over the tiles on a dark night? I would laugh to see him try. + +"Now here am I on this bright, beautiful summer morning, as fresh as a +daisy, as happy as a king. Catch me sleeping in the house on a summer's +night! + +"How sweetly the birds are singing, but how much more sweetly they will +taste! What a glorious day I had of it yesterday all through! Put in +an appearance at the parson's breakfast-table, just for fashion's sake, +and pretended to drink the milk my kind mistress placed before me. +Fairly won the old lady's heart by rubbing my head affectionately +against the canary's cage. `Dear Tom,' said she, `_you_ would never +touch the pretty bird?' Oh! wouldn't I, though? + +"What a nasty old man that Farmer Trump is! I'm sure, if it wasn't that +I have a taste for pigeons, and am a little bit of a Columbarian, I +would never have thought of looking at his lot, anyhow. Besides, I had +only eaten two when in came _he_, and out went _I_. Well, if he didn't +take his gun and fire after me. Well, if he hadn't done anything of the +sort, he wouldn't have shot his bantam cock. + +"I didn't go into that milk cellar of my own free will. It was purely +accidental. I was chased by a dog, but being in, how could I, being +only a thirsty cat, and amid such profusion, help helping myself to a +drop of cream? And if the clumsy old dairymaid hadn't thrown her shoe +at me, she wouldn't have broken the milk-house window. It was no +business of mine. I met Master Black-and-tan outside, and warmed him. +I gave _him_ sore eyes. That old shoe brought luck with it, however, +for about an hour after I found myself in a large and beautiful garden, +filled with beds of the rarest flowers. It isn't always you get a bed +made for you, thinks I; so I scraped about me a bit, and went off to +sleep in the sun. Where did that half-brick come from? I wonder. I'm +somehow of opinion that it was meant for me. However, if people will +use profane language, and heave bricks at the heads of unoffending cats, +they mustn't be astonished if they do smash the cucumber frame. + +"I find it so much better to live in the free forest, because, if I live +in the house, a day never passes that I do not get into a row, and I +always get the worst of it. Only yesterday I looked in for a few +minutes at tea-time, and there was Dumpling standing, with a yard of +tongue hanging from one side of his mouth; and Master must pat him, and +call him a fine fellow; then I jumped on the sofa-stool, and smacked him +in the face, and Dumpling knocked down the stool to get at me, besides a +cup and saucer, with his wisp of a tail, and I bolted through a pane of +glass, and got blamed for that. Day before, a mouse was pleased to get +behind a china vase, and I had to break the vase to get at it--I got +blamed for that. Same day I ran away with a mackerel. That mackerel +seemed positively to say, `Oh, pussy, do run away with me, and eat me in +some nice, quiet corner.' And I did; and, would you believe it, I was +even blamed for that! + +"I'm going to see Zelina to-night. Zelina is a beautiful black Persian +angel, with hazel eyes and flowing fur, and a voice that would lure the +larks from the sky. Zelina belongs to the barber, and I met her by +appointment in the back garden, and found her very thick with three +other fellows. That's the worst of Zelina. But I fellowed them! For +five minutes you wouldn't have seen either of us for fluff, and at the +end of that time little remained of the other cats save the teeth. +Meanwhile Zelina looked calmly on. Then I wooed Zelina beneath the +moon, and thrashed her, and beat her, and bit her, till at last she +consented to fly with me to a foreign shore; but we made such a row that +we awoke the brute of a barber, and he threw a basin of dirty water +right over us, and there was no more foreign shore thought of. But I'll +see her to-night, sweet Zelina!" + +I'll conclude this paper with a rather curious anecdote, told me by +Captain A. Brown, late of Arbroath, now of Chatham, Canada. "We have a +cat," says Captain Brown, "who brought up a kitten in a loft above the +woodshed, until it was old enough to wean; she then brought it down to +run about, but the dog (a puppy) would on every opportunity take the +kitten in its mouth and drag it about. This the cat didn't seem to +like, so one day she took it in her mouth, and carried it along, on the +top of the fence, to the nearest farm, a quarter of a mile off, where +the _kitten's father lived_. She placed the kitten at the male parent's +feet, gave it suck once more, then started off home along the fence, and +never went near it again." + +This anecdote, for the truth of which the captain vouches, clearly +proves that pussy has a much larger amount of reasoning power than most +people give her credit for. It was just as though pussy had addressed +the male cat thus: + +"I've brought you your youngster, Thomas. It cannot live at home for +the mischievous puppy. Goodness knows I've done _my_ duty to him as a +mother; now, hub, you have a turn. Time about's fair-play, Thomas; +good-bye." + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +SAGACITY OF THE CAT. + + "The dignity of life is not impaired + By aught which innocently satisfies + The humbler cravings of the heart; and he + Is still a happier man, who, for the heights + Of speculation not unfit, descends, + And such benign affections cultivates, + Among the inferior kinds." + + Wordsworth. + +I think many of the miseries which the "harmless necessary cat" has to +endure in this wicked world of hers and ours would be mitigated if not +entirely removed, were we only to take the trouble to study and consider +what a wonderfully reasoning and sensible little thing she is. "Leave +the study to old maids," I think I hear some manly (?) reader exclaim. +But why to old maids? It is you who are unkind to pussy, and regardless +of her comforts, and not old maids. And indeed, indeed now, I never for +the life of me could see why any stigma should attach itself to an old +maid any more than to a cat. Most of the old maids I have known were +very agreeable persons indeed, and I've spent many a quiet and enjoyable +hour with old maids over a cup of homely tea. My two maternal aunts are +old maids, they even plead guilty to the soft impeachment, but cheerier +bodies you wouldn't meet anywhere. They go three times to the kirk on a +Sunday, to be sure, and wouldn't cook a meal on that sacred day for a +world. But just see them on a week-day, look at their bright smiling +faces--what odds if they do try to appear a few years younger?--and ah! +just see them go through the intricate figures of the mazy Reel o' +Tulloch, and hear them crack their thumbs, and cry "hooch!" you wouldn't +say old-maidendom was so very dreary after that. It isn't always a +woman's fault if she can't get married: many, whose early affections +have been blighted, would not marry if they could, for haven't they got +a posy somewhere, a locket with a face, a lock of hair, and a faded +ribbon which erst was bonny blue--relics of lost love, around which +cling sweetest memories of the past? Besides, have not unmarried ladies +more opportunities to taste the sweets of doing good, and, better still, +more time to cherish hopes of happiness hereafter, which are worth a +world of wedded bliss? + +Cats then, like old maids, are fifty times worse than they are painted, +and the reason why people don't like them is because they don't +understand them. I have at this moment a large and beautiful tabby, and +I positively rejoice that that cat is so fierce to everyone but me, +because before I got her she was subjected to the most barbarous +treatment, neither fed, nor housed, nor watered, and I believe I was the +first person from whom she ever got a word of kindness. No wonder that +at first she did not understand my meaning. But she does now, though +she never will be tame; but if I am asleep she mounts guard on the table +near me, and her purring chant is speedily turned into a low, ominous +growl if any one but touches the handle of the door. Does she know that +I am asleep, and that one in sleep is helpless as regards defence? I'm +sure she does, for-- + +_Cats know the nature of sleep in others_.--A friend of mine has a +pussy, Kate to name, who has been early trained to habits of +cleanliness. When Kate wishes to get out at night she goes to her +master's bedside, and mews loudly and entreatingly. To see how she will +behave, sometimes her master pretends to be fast asleep, and snores +loudly. "Oh!" thinks puss to herself, "this will never do;" so she +invariably stands upon her hind legs, and pats his face with her gloved +hand. When he gets up, she trots pleasantly before him towards a little +window, which he opens for her, and admits her into the garden. The +same cat for many years used to seat herself regularly every night on a +chest of drawers, waiting patiently till the door of the adjoining +cupboard was thrown open for her: this cupboard was a very prolific +hunting-ground of pussy's. When she had kittens, and they were able to +eat, she used to bring all the mice to them, and present them with that +fond "murring" mew which all cat lovers know so well. + +Everybody knows that cats can open doors if left off the latch, and also +that they soon get up to the mechanism of the old-fashioned +hand-and-thumb latch; they open this by springing up, and holding on to +the hand portion with one arm, while they press down the thumb portion +with the other foot. + +A lady friend of mine has a large Tabby Tom who can open a room door, by +standing on his hind legs and turning the knob with his teeth. This is +clever, but cats even know how to _fasten_ doors, at least some do; and +this same _lady was once in_ a cupboard, when one of her pussies came +and turned on the button latch of the door, and made her a prisoner for +some considerable time! + +In a small village which I know, there is an old woman who lives by +keeping lodgers of the more humble description. As these have often to +get up and be off early in the morning, the woman always gives them +strict injunctions to shut the door when they go out, for fear of +thieves. One morning a lodger had forgotten to obey his landlady's +instructions. Pussy, however, had witnessed the infraction of the rule, +and walked directly to her mistress's bedside, and began to mew most +plaintively. Nor would she be content till the woman got up, when the +cat led her directly to the door. Pussy wouldn't go out, but so soon as +the door was shut, led the way again back to bed, _singing_. Old +women's cats are nearly always wiser than others--they get more care +taken with their training, and more comfort and love. They know all the +ways, likes, and dislikes of a beloved mistress, and study them just as +they do their own. Indeed, some of the things I have known old women's +cats do are unaccountable in any other way, but the belief that they are +possessed of a very high amount of intelligence and reasoning power. No +wonder our ignorant ancestors believed them possessed of devils. + +You see it is just like this--when you once get a cat to love you, you, +and you only, will become the study of her whole life. She soon finds +out what pleases you, and what vexes you, and also what you love, and, +whether that be dog or child, she will love it too, to please you. + +Cats will often, very often--just like dogs--lead those they love to +places where something or some creature is in danger. It may be, as +happened to myself once, while residing in Lincoln, two summers ago, +when a cat came towards me out of an entry, and, as plain as any animal +could speak, gazed up into my face, and cried: "Come, oh come and help +me?" I followed, and she led me down the garden to a closet, through +which her kitten had dropped into the cesspool below. Now just think +for one moment of the amount of sagacity shown in this case! Piteously +the little kit had mewed to her mother: "Mother, mother, come and help +me?" Pussy's answer had been: "My dear, I can't, but I'll soon find +those who will." And that was precisely my answer to the mother cat, +when I saw the state of affairs, and I kept my word. + +And once again a pussy--this time my own--led me a long way from my work +to a distant outhouse to see her kits. After she got me to the spot +where they were, she rolled on her back and held them up one by one to +be admired. + +I knew the case of a cat bringing her mistress hastily to a room where +her sick child lay. The child had rolled on to the floor, and would +have been smothered, except for pussy's timely aid. + +Some will hardly credit this, because they do not see the working of the +internal machine--pussy's mind--nor know the motive power--love, love, +love. _Amor vincit omnia_. + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +CATS FEEDING THE SICK. + +"Ma conscience! mither, it kens its name?" Such was the exclamation of +a little ragged and kilted urchin, in the remote Highlands of +Argyllshire, as he heard me call my dog to give him a drink. The day +was exceedingly warm, and we had had a long walk over the mountain, and +had been kindly invited into a shepherd's hut, and asked to partake of a +draught of cool, sweet whey--the very best of summer beverages. Nero +was having a "talkee-talkee" with some rabbits, and didn't see his whey +until I called his attention to it; hence the wondering urchin's +exclamation. + +"Hoo shouldna he?" said the mother; "poor wise-lookin' beast. Ise +warrant he kens mair than that." + +The idea of even a child thinking it strange Theodore Nero [the +Newfoundland champion] should know his name was so amusing that I gave +the boy "twa bawbees" on the spot. + +And just on a par with this boy's ignorance, is the unbelieving +ignorance of some people who doubt everything they cannot understand, +however well authenticated. This doubting implies an assumption on +their part that the knowledge they possess is the highest attainable, +that their minds are, in fact, complete in themselves. It is people of +this class--fools--who doubt the existence of even a Supreme Being. I +read in a late number of the _Live Stock Journal_ an account of a cat, +which, seeing its master sick in bed, and unable to move, brought a +mouse to him, and on her master pretending to eat it, the same day +brought him a striped squirrel; and every day, until he got well, +brought "game" of some sort and laid them on his bed. + +I believe I, myself, was the first who ever _dared_ to publish a case of +the same kind. The story was this: A poor ploughman, who lived in a +little hut at the foot of the Moffat Hills, in Scotland, fell sick of a +long, lingering illness--and when the poor are ill they are poorer +still; it is then the shoe pinches. This poor man had nothing in the +house but meal and milk. The doctor said he must have wine. His wife +pledged her marriage-gown to get it. The doctor said he must have meat. +That was beyond their power to procure. But a merciful Providence had +willed the man should live; and one day the little tortoiseshell cat, +which was a great favourite with the poor ploughman, and had been very +dull and wretched since his illness, brought in a rabbit--a thing, mind +you, she had never done before--and placed it on the bed. She appeared +to brighten up as she saw it skinned and cooked by the ploughman's wife, +and partaken of by her sick master. And next day she brought another, +and so on, almost every day, a rabbit or a bird, until her master was +well, after _which she brought no more_. I took very considerable pains +to test the truth of this story, and went to some expense about it as +well, and found it in every whit true as first related to me. [See +"Cats," by same Author. Dean and Sons, Publishers, 160a, Fleet Street.] + +Since then I have had one or two cases precisely similar to the above, +in which cats brought their "game-bag" to the bed of a sick master or +mistress. + +It is indisputable, then, that such things have been done over and over +again. And now the question comes to be, how are we to account for it? +In ancient times, these poor, affectionate pussies would doubtless have +been condemned to death as being witches in feline form. + +In our own day such cases are usually put down to a special +interposition of Providence. Now, without doubting for a moment that +there is a Divinity which shapes the end, we must remember that that +Divinity works more by simple laws than miraculous means, and +consequently endeavour to account for the occurrences in a natural way. + +Cats, we know, after they have weaned their kittens, are in the habit of +bringing them mice, etc, by way of food. This we do not think at all +strange, and we put it down to that much-abused term--instinct. But the +following anecdote shows, I think, something higher than mere instinct, +and will help us to understand why the cat will bring food to a sick +master or mistress. + +A certain cat had kittens. They were all drowned except one, which, of +course, became a great pet with pussy, who, after putting it through a +course of milk, put it through a course of mice, according to the custom +of country cats. The kitten grew up into a fine large Tom, and was big +enough to thrash his mother, which I'm sorry to say the unfilial rascal +sometimes did. But a day came when he had need of that mother's love. +Tom had his leg torn off in a trap, and was confined to his pallet of +straw for several weeks, and never, one single day of his illness, did +his mother miss bringing her wounded son either birds or mice, until he +was able to run once more, though on three legs, to go and hunt them for +himself. This cat is living still, I believe. It is quite evident that +a cat's affection for, and attachment to, a beloved master, are quite +equal to their love for a grown-up son, and the same feelings which +prompt her to minister to the latter when ill, and unable to move, would +cause her to attend on the other. + +Cats easily know when any one they love is sick or ailing. I returned +home a few years ago, after an absence of some six months, very bad +indeed. I thought I was a "gone coon," as the Yanks say, and didn't +feel to have any more flesh on my ribs than there is on those telegraph +wires. Well, my pet cat was rejoiced to see me, and hardly ever left my +room. She would never leave me, it is true, but still there was +something very strange in her behaviour. For she must have seen +something strange in my appearance. Whether she took me for an impostor +or not, I cannot say, but she always sat facing me whenever I was +seated, seldom taking her eyes off my face, and her brows were lowered +as if she were angry with me about something. What were pussy's +thoughts? I asked this question one day of my father's housekeeper. +"The cat kens ye'er no lang for this warld," said Eppie; "gin I were +you, I'd just mak' my callin' and election sure." Calling and election! +How I hated the old rook! Cats have an idea that when any one is +ailing, it _must_ be for want of food. Poor things! How often they +suffer hunger and privations themselves, goodness only can tell! This +idea is not confined to cats alone. Dogs, at least, I know possess the +same notion. I could give many anecdotes to prove this, but as this +book is presumably on cats, I must only give one. + +An Inverness-shire student was returning from the south, and with him +his faithful Scottish collie. In the Highlands there are generally two +roads, the high and the low; the low road being the longest and of +course the safest, and the high much shorter, but usually leading +through some ugly bits of country, which are far from safe even by day, +and much less by night. It was a beautiful night, quite clear and +starry, with just the slightest crust of snow on the ground, barely +enough to darken the heather. But such being the case, the student +thought he could easily venture to cross by the hills, and thus save a +mile or two. Early next morning, a woman at a neighbouring farm was +surprised, while baking bannocks, by the entrance of a strange collie. +The collie did not use much ceremony, but simply stole the largest +bannock, and fled. This, of course, was not thought much of. The dog +was hungry, and the morning cold, and he was welcome to the bannock, +although it would have been more satisfactory for both sides had he +asked for it. The same dog returned, however, in a few hours, and his +behaviour was so strange that one of the family was induced to follow +him. The dog led him a long way over the mountains, and at last brought +up at the foot of a precipice, near a stream, where "something dark was +lying." This something dark was no other than the poor student, who had +slipped his foot on the previous night, and tumbled over the rock. He +was at first supposed to be dead, but soon revived, having merely +fractured a thigh, and become insensible from the cold; but the strange +part of the story is to come--the bannock, all untouched, reclined +against the student's cheek, _placed there by the dog_. [At page 83, +volume three, "Annals of Sporting," an instance of collie-dog sagacity +very similar to this is given.] + +Not only do cats know sickness in others, but they are acquainted in +some way with the mystery of death. Observe a cat, for instance, that +has played with a mouse until she has killed it. Just see the critical +way she turns it over and over with her foot, and glares into its +glazing eyes. She wants to make sure the wee thing is not shamming; +but, being satisfied, mark her as she coolly stretches herself, or walks +slowly away from her victim, as much as to say: "Well, I've had half an +hour's good fun, anyhow. Might have eaten it as long as it was alive, +though; but I can't bear a dead mouse. So it's just as broad as it's +long." + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +TOM, TIMBY, AND TOM BRANDY. + + "The best-laid schemes o' mice and men + Gang aft agley, + An' leave us nought but grief and pain + For promised joy." + + Burns. + +And if the schemes of mice and men often "gang agley," it is not to be +wondered at that the sagacity of the domestic cat is sometimes at fault. +A very large and beautiful cat, belonging to a lady in Dumbarton, was +very much attached to its home--more so, perhaps, in this case, than to +its mistress, for one day, much to pussy's disgust, disreputable-looking +men in aprons--so pussy thought them--came to the house and began to +remove the furniture. Pussy sat on the hearthrug, washing her face with +a spittle and musing. "I've been so happy here," she was thinking; "I +know every mouse's hole in the house, and the places in the garden where +I can hide to catch the sparrows, and the gaps in the hedge through +which I can bolt when that Skye-terrier chases me, and the whitethorn +bush beneath whose scented boughs I meet dear Tom in the moonlight. Oh! +the thoughts of leaving Tom--no, I cannot, will not, leave the old +house. Missus can hang herself if she likes. Happy thought, I'll +hide--hide in the linen drawer, till this cruel war is over, and then +come forth, mistress of all I survey." And so she did; but, +unfortunately for her calculations, the chest of drawers was moved as +well; and when at last she did "come forth," much to her bewilderment +she was in a house which she had never seen before in her life. + +The following anecdotes may not be thought uninteresting; they are taken +almost at random from hosts of others in my possession, or, if there has +been any choice in the matter, they have been chosen because the three +cats, whose stories here are told, lived in widely different parts of +the globe, clearly proving that a cat is a cat all the world over. +We'll give the English cat the preference. There is nothing very +wonderful in his history. Tom was born and bred in Gloucestershire; he +was presented to his master and mistress, the former of whom was a +schoolmaster, when quite a little kitten, and soon became a great +favourite with both. Tom, who was a tabby, soon grew in strength and +beauty, until there were few male or female cats in the neighbourhood +who did not own him lord and master. But Tom was so fond of his owners +that he spent but little time either fighting or courting, much to his +credit be it said. About this time, his master and mistress used to +make frequent visits to a neighbouring village. Tom was not permitted +to accompany them; but, whatever time they returned, by night or by day, +wet weather or dry, poor Tom always met them nearly a mile from their +own house. + +Tom was remarkably fond of the schoolchildren, and every day, as +regularly as the clock struck twelve, at which hour the school was +released for the forenoon, Tom presented himself all ready for a romp. +The family dinner-hour was one o'clock, and Tom never failed to attend. +There was a knocker on the door, and whenever pussy found the door +closed, he used to _jump up and knock_, just as he had seen strangers +do. + +Tom knew the days of the week, for he was never known to set out for +school on Saturdays or Sundays, for the simple reason that he knew the +school was closed. + +Another strange trait in Tom's character was his fondness for poultry. +"He would feed with _very young_ chickens, and with the ducks and hens, +never attempting to molest the weakest of them, but would even yield to +them, and frequently leave the choicest bits for them." Tom's life was +a very happy one until his owners removed to Leamington. Here, in the +same house with him, were a parcel of rude, badly-bred children, who +persistently ill-treated the poor cat, till at last Tom was missing; and +it was found he had taken up his abode in a fowl-house among his old +friends. This was rather a down-come for the poor cat, and he must have +felt as wretched as a human being whom, after living for years in +luxury, misfortune had at last condemned to the poor-house. Being +removed back to his owner's house, and the children still continuing +their persecutions, Tom fled to the woods and became a bandit, and no +doubt met with a bandit cat's death, and died in a trap. So we leave +him. + +Tom Brandy was an Australian miner's cat. The miners baptised him in +_aguardiente_, and hence his name. He was a beautiful large black cat, +with one white spot on his chest, invaluable as a hunter, and came down +like a whirlwind on every dog he saw. He was a good example of the +travelling cat; he would follow his master every Sunday in Melbourne to +church, hide in a neighbouring garden till the preaching was over, and +then trot home behind him. He would lead like a dog in a string. Tom's +travelling carriage was an old gin case. Into this Tom would jump +whenever he saw preparations made for striking the tent, and lie there +without ever appearing, at times for a whole day, until the new +camping-ground was reached. Yes, a wild life Tom led of it in the +Australian bush. When Tom's master left for "merrie England," Tom +proved himself just as good a ship cat as he had been a miner's puss. +Only, mind you, Tom liked his comforts when he could get them. It was +no business of his if his master and family chose to be intermediate +passengers. He knew better, and attached himself to the cabin, +although, to show he did not forget his owners, he used to pay them a +visit every evening, to see, I suppose, if they had everything they +wanted. On the arrival of the ship at Birkenhead, the purser, after +offering two pounds for Tom in vain, stole Tom Brandy; but Tom was at +his master's house that night, nevertheless. + +Tom's future home was Montrose, where he lived for two years happy +enough, after which he mysteriously disappeared, and was not seen again +for nineteen months. Where had he been? What had he been doing? How +had he lived? _N'importe_! Tom Brandy turned up again very thin and +very angry, and wanted to fight everybody save his own master. Tom +lived happy ever after--that is, for three years, when he laid down upon +a shelf and died like a Christian. And the days and years of Tom +Brandy's life were sixteen and over, and he weighed a little under +seventeen pounds. + +Timby is also a Tom cat, and lives at Dunbeath Castle, Caithness; a +pretty black-and-white animal, weighing about ten pounds. Timby is the +coachman's cat; and as his master lives in a retired part of the +country, the two are naturally very much attached to each other. Timby +follows his master round the grounds and policies just like a dog. When +little more than a kitten he proved himself a perfect Nimrod among cats, +brought down birds from the highest trees, tore up moles from their +tunnels, and was death upon rats and mice wherever he saw them. + +Since he has grown up to years of discretion, Timby has learned to +despise such paltry game as mice or rats. The Highlands of Scotland, as +the reader doubtless knows, are infested with rabbits, and many a poor +farmer is ruined by them; and these Timby makes his special quarry. It +is his habit to stay out all night, and he seldom appears without a +coney in the morning. If his master will accept the rabbit, Timby is +very much pleased. If his master won't, and pushes it away with his +foot, "Oh, very well," says Timby, "I'll have the rabbit; you have that +herring of yours--I question if it will keep another day;" and he trots +off with his prey. + +Three years ago his master got a nice retriever dog, and to this dog +Timby was at first exceedingly cruel, but latterly he grew very much +attached to it; and as often as he can spare a rabbit he brings it to +the dog's kennel, and seems pleased to see him devour it. + +Like my own cat or cats, Timby will defend his master with his heart's +blood. One day when Mr McKenzie, Timby's master, was trying a new +terrier with a rabbit, Timby, who had followed unperceived, as soon as +he heard the rabbit scream, doubtless came to the conclusion that his +master was in danger, and sprang fiercely on another dog which Mr +McKenzie was holding. The battle was short and bloody, and the poor dog +had to retire very much worsted. Another day, when the coachman and his +cat were lying together on the grass, a friend came up, and was just in +the act of throwing himself on the turf likewise, when Timby flew upon +him and lacerated his face very severely, and it was with some +difficulty his master got him off. + +Timby goes regularly to the sea with his master to swim the dogs, but +does not himself take the water. But in coming home a rabbit is often +started. Then away go the dogs, and away goes Timby, and, strange as it +may seem in rabbit-coursing, Timby would gain as many, if not more, +points than the terriers. However, there is no sort of spirit of +rivalry betwixt them, and if the dogs choose to beat a field for +rabbits, Timby stands by to catch them; again, when the dogs prefer to +"lay by," Timby with pleasure goes and beats the field for them. + +If Timby knows there is any vermin in a burrow, he has patience enough +to wait till he secures it! and he has been known to lie near a hole +_for nine hours_ in a stormy day, before his patience was rewarded. + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +SOME TRAITS OF FELINE CHARACTER. + +We all know that almost any dog that has lived a reasonable number of +years, and isn't a kennel dog, but one of the family, as it were, +understands pretty nearly all that is said in his presence, if it at all +concerns him. My Theodore Nero is exceedingly 'cute in this respect. +When I have to go out without taking him along with me, he will lie +listening attentively, with just half an eye open, till he finds out in +what particular direction I mean to go. After I leave home he tries +every trick and wile to get round the servant, and generally succeeds; +so that, on turning a corner of the road, ten to one I find the +identical dog I left asleep in the parlour, coolly waiting for me. +Indeed, I have often to leave my orders about him in bad French, as my +wife doesn't understand good Gaelic. I get to windward of the dog that +way, and, I fear, sometimes to windward of the wife too; the haziness of +my French leaving the one just as wise as the other. + +Till very recently, some people wouldn't even admit that a cat could +know its own name; some people get wiser every day, and I, for one, +believe that cats know fully as much of what we say as dogs do. As an +instance of this, I give you the following anecdote, which may be +entitled: + +_A Cat with a Conscience_.--A certain Mr Coutts, of Newhills, Aberdeen, +is very fond of both cats and poultry, and studies the tricks and +manners of both. He recently had a hen with a large brood of chickens, +the number of which day after day became lessened by one at least. The +place was always searched, but not the slightest trace of a dead one +could be discovered. The poor cock was blamed, ravens were suspected, +and hawks deemed guilty; but still there was some mystery about it, and +the chicks went on getting fewer and fewer. About this time it was +observed that whenever the subject was brought up, the favourite cat +seemed all at once to grow exceedingly uneasy and restless, and finally +bolted off through the nearest open door. This naturally aroused +suspicion. Pussy was watched, and found one day in the very act of +walking away with a chicken. + +I have another anecdote, something similar, of a cat called Polly. +Polly had one failing, although otherwise a virtuous cat, and extremely +honest--she could not resist the temptation of stealing a bit of cheese, +whenever she could do so unperceived. But note the slyness of this +pussy: she could never be prevailed upon to touch cheese, even if +offered to her in the presence of any one of the family, evidently +reasoning thus with herself: "If I pretend I can't eat cheese because it +disagrees with me, they will never blame me for stealing it, and I shall +often find myself locked in the same room--glorious thought!--with a +whole Cheddar." + +It is a well-known fact that dogs often take particular dislikes to +certain people. They appear, in many cases, to be much better judges of +character than we ourselves are. I believe this instinct, or whatever +else it is, is not confined to dogs alone, but is equally shared by +other animals. Cats, I know, possess it in a very remarkable degree. +They know by some means, which I will not pretend to understand, those +individuals who have a soft side towards them. Why, for instance, did +that strange cat at Lincoln single me out from dozens of people who were +on the street, and ask me to go to the rescue of her kitten? + +Why do cats often pass other people by, and come up to me on the +pavement, requesting me to ring the bell, that they may get in out of +the wet? There are two strange cats who sleep in the sun almost daily +in a corner of my front garden. If any one comes along they bolt at +once, but when I pass up and down, they merely look at me and lie still; +and I never speak to them, unless, perhaps, just a passing word. But, +what is still more strange, Theodore Nero walks up and down past them +without causing them the slightest alarm. Yet, what a tremendous +monster he must appear to them! They just look at him, wonderingly, as +much as to say: "Oh, you great, good-natured-looking brute, however you +can catch mice and sparrows enough to fill your enormous stomach, I +can't tell?" + +I know a lady who is very fond of cats, and when out walking or shopping +in town, it is quite a usual thing for her to be accosted by some poor +half-starved waif or stray, and very often she goes into a shop and buys +food for them, for which, no doubt, they are grateful, and for which, no +doubt, she will one day receive her reward from Him who careth even for +the humble sparrows. This lady was passing a house one time where a +poor cat was confined, the usual occupants having gone to the seaside, +and left pussy shut up in the empty house. As soon as she stopped at +the door of the house, the cat's cries were quite pitiable to hear. As +soon as this lady left the door, the cries ceased, only to be renewed +whenever she returned. But pussy did not make the same noises when +others stopped in front of the door. + +_A Cat deserting one Home for another_.--A tortoiseshell-and-white cat, +belonging now to a friend of mine, came into his possession in rather a +singular way. The cat was originally the property of a neighbour of my +friend, whose house was on the opposite side of the street, and about +thirty yards off. There she stayed, apparently perfectly contented and +happy, until she became the mother of four kittens. Then, for some +reason or other known only to herself, she determined to shift her +quarters, and one day my friend was astonished to see Kate, as she was +called, march into his house with a kitten in her mouth, which she +deposited in a safe and comfortable corner, and then set off for the +others, which she brought one by one. Remember this, the cat had never +been in my friend's house before! Kate's kittens were taken back again +to her old home, and Kate marched them all over again to the home of her +choice. And this was done every day for a whole week. + +"It's no earthly use, you know," Kate seemed to say. "What I says I +means, and what I does I sticks to." + +And so my friend had to adopt both Kate and her family, previously +having failed in an attempt to starve her out, for Kate had adopted a +system of house-to-house begging, but always came home in the evening. + +This cat for fourteen years used to sit patiently on the arm of her +master's chair until dinner was done and she was helped. + +It is exceedingly rude, I know, to doubt a lady's word, but _can you +believe_ what follows? 'A lady assures me that she has such an +inexplicable and innate antipathy to cats, that if she enters a strange +room she can tell at once if there is a cat there, whether she sees it +or not. And if a cat is carried suddenly into a room where she is, she +"faints dead away." + +Another lady friend of mine, who is very fond of animals of all sorts, +while living down in Brighton last October, was hastening home one +evening just about dusk, when she suddenly found that she was not alone, +but accompanied by some little black creature, which, immediately she +came under the gas-lamp, she found was a poor little stray kitten. As +this wee puss bounded into the house as soon as the door was opened, of +course she believed it belonged to the house. Going to her bedroom to +dress for dinner, there was little Miss Puss sitting on the bed singing, +and apparently perfectly satisfied with her new quarters, for the lady +soon found it did not belong to the house. + +Pussy was treated to a saucerful of milk, and then sent adrift out into +the street, chased out with a broom, in fact, for the housemaid hated +cats. This kitten didn't mean to be put off like this, however. She +stopped out all night, certainly, but quietly came in with the charwoman +at five o'clock in the morning, and came directly to my friend's +bedroom. There is no getting rid of a cat when it once concludes to +board itself upon you, and this little waif soon established herself for +good at Ashburnham House. But here is the strange part of the business. +She seemed to know that my friend Mrs W. was only a visitor here, and +constantly showed great discretion, by sticking close to her apartments +and back-yard. Just once she ventured down to the kitchen, and the old +residential cat bit a piece out of her ear. "If that is how you treat +visitors," said kitty, "I'll stick to my own rooms in future." And so +she did. + +It is sometimes rather a difficult thing finding suitable apartments +when you are accompanied with pets. It takes considerable tact, I can +assure you, to convince Mrs 'Arris, or whatever is the name of your +intended landlady, that your Newfoundland is so clean that you never can +see even a hair on the carpet; that your Pomeranian is an angel in +canine form; that your Persian cat wouldn't steal, if surrounded even by +the most tempting viands; that your macaw doesn't scream loud enough to +give all the terrace "an 'eadache;" and that your white rats never +escape and run all over the house. Mrs W. had some difficulty about +her kitten when she went to the lodgings she had taken at Norwood. + +"I certainly did expect," her landlady observed, "a lady with birds, and +a mouse, and a very large dog; but a cat I couldn't have, because I've +one of my own." + +Mrs W. of course promised all sorts of impossibilities regarding her +pet, and her landlady finally gave in. + +But, strange to say, this very house became the kitten's future home, +for the landlady's grandchild struck up a friendship with the wee pussy, +and when the child fell sick, the kitten would hardly ever leave her +little crib, nor would the child bear Miss Brighton, as she called her +feline favourite, out of her sight for a single moment. Who shall say +how far the simple companionship, of this loving and affectionate wee +kitten, might not have tended to the child's restoration to perfect +health? + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +LOVE OF CHILDREN AND AFFECTION FOR OWNER. + +There is hardly a domestic animal we possess that is not fond, to a +greater or less extent, of children. How carefully a horse will pick +his steps if a child happens to fall amongst his feet! I saw a bull one +day escape, wounded and furious, from a killing-house, and dash madly +along the turnpike road. He knocked down and injured several people, +who could not get quickly enough out of his way; then there stood, +paralysed with fear, and right in the wild brute's path, a child of +tender years, which everyone who saw it gave up for lost; but the bull, +who did not hesitate to attack grown-up people, suddenly veered to one +side, and left this child unhurt! + +My large Newfoundland dog is in the habit of careering along the street +with a speed which, considering his size, is quite incompatible with the +safety of the lieges. Policemen, especially, very often find themselves +in the line of his rush, and Nero never hesitates to run clean through +these men, so to speak, leaving them sprawling on the ground with heels +in air; but the other day this dog, on suddenly rounding a corner, found +himself confronted with four little toddling infants, who, hand in hand, +were coming along the pavement. There was no time to slacken speed, and +to proceed was certain death to one or more of the poor children, and +what do you think this noble fellow did? why lifted himself clean off +the pavement, and sprang high and clear over their heads. + +The same dog was once in a hotel, when a friend of mine offered him a +biscuit. Master Nero wasn't hungry; he would neither eat the biscuit +from my friend's hand nor from my own, but when the landlord's pretty +little daughter came running in, and threw her arms about his neck, and +caressed him, he hadn't the heart to refuse the biscuit from _her_ +hands, and even accepted several from her, although still refusing them +from us. + +But the domestic cat is, _par excellence_, the playmate and friend of +childhood. What is it, indeed, that pussy will not bear from the hands +of its little child-mistress? She may pull and lug pussy about any way +she pleases, or walk up and down the garden-walk with it slung over her +shoulder by the tail. If such treatment does hurt the poor cat, she +takes good care not to show it. It is amusing enough sometimes to watch +a little girl making a baby of her favourite pussy. They are wearied +with gambolling together on the flowery lawn, and playing at +hide-and-seek among the shrubbery, and pussy "_must_ be tired," says +little Alice. Pussy enters into the joke at once, and seems positively +dead beat; so the basket is brought, the little night-cap is put on, the +shawl is carefully pinned around its shoulders, and this embryo mamma +puts her feline baby to bed and bids it sleep. There is always two +words, however, with pussy as regards the sleeping part of the contract, +for little Alice never can get her baby to close more than one eye at a +time. Pussy must see what is going on. Anon the baby "must be sick," +and pussy forthwith appears as if she couldn't possibly survive another +hour. Bread pills are manufactured, and forced over the poor cat's +throat, she barely resisting. Then lullabies, low and sweet, are sung +to her, which pussy enjoys immensely, and presently, joining in the song +herself, goes off to sleep in earnest. + +And Alice, pussy's friend, although at times she may use the furry +favourite rather roughly, is kind to her in the main. Doesn't pussy get +a share of Alice's porridge every morning? doesn't she sup with Alice +every night? and do you think for one moment Alice would go to bed +without her? Not she. And still this cat, may be as savage as a she +tiger, to every one else in the house save to her little mistress. Just +let you or me, reader, attempt to hold her up by the tail--well, I would +a hundred times rather you should try it than I. + +The very fact, I think, that faithful pussy is so fond of our innocent +children, and so patient and self-denying towards them, is one reason +why we should be kind to her, and study her comforts a little more than +we do. + +But probably one of the most endearing traits in the character of the +domestic cat is her extreme attachment to, and love for, the person who +owns her. If you once get your cat to really love you, no matter how +fond she may be of the home where she was born and reared, she will go +with you, if you but say the word, to the uttermost parts of the earth. +My poor old favourite, Muffle, has travelled many, many thousands of +miles with me by sea and land, and always watched over both me and my +property _with all the care_ and fidelity of a Highland collie. Been +lost, too, she has, many a time in the midst of big bustling cities +which were quite strange to her--been lost, but always turned up again. + +I know of many instances in which cats have so attached themselves to +their owners, that, when the latter have died, they have refused all +food, and in a few days succumbed to grief, and gone, I fondly hope, to +meet the loved one in a world that's free of care. + +"But the largest cat," writes one of my numerous correspondents, "I ever +saw belonged to my mother's mother, and was wise and sedate in +proportion to its size. Its good mistress was often distressed with +palpitation of the heart, and during the silent hours of night paced the +bedroom floor in pain--but not alone, for the faithful creature would +walk slowly at her side, seeming by his look to pity her condition, and +when she lay down he would still stand sentinel at her head. He never +could be persuaded to leave the house while she lived, yet a few hours +before her death he suddenly took flight, but only to the lower +apartments, which my parents occupied, and from which he never stirred +again." + +I never think, somehow, that a fireside has the same cheerful look of an +evening unless there be a cat there, to sit on the footstool, and sing +duets with the tea-kettle. + +And I do not wonder at old women, whose friends have all long since gone +before, and who have no one left to care for them, getting greatly +attached to a faithful pussy; for people must have something to love. + +"But, fancy loving a cat!" I think I hear some churl remark. + +Yes, cynical reader, and I have, myself, before now, often shared my +heart with stranger pets than cats; and I don't mind betting you that +what I have left of it is bigger than yours now. + +Figuratively speaking, I think a man's or a woman's heart is like a +blacksmith's arm--_it grows with use_. + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +HINTS UPON BREEDING AND REARING CATS FOR EXHIBITION, AND A WORD ABOUT +CAT-SHOWS. + +At nearly all the cat-shows which I have visited of late, I have been +invariably impressed with this one idea: here, in these shows, we see +pussy as she is in the present day--the live mouse-trap, the barn cat, +at best the fireside favourite--but, at all events, the animal, of all +our domestic animals, that is least cared for, and the only animal we +possess, whose improvement in condition and species we have never cared +to study. What this animal--the domestic cat--can become, the +perfection to which she may attain through judicious selection and +careful breeding, it is for future years to show. + +Other nations--such as the Persians and different other Asiatics--know +far more about the domestic cat than we do, and quite put us to the +blush with their splendidly-bred and high-blooded animals. + +It is one of the many popular fallacies current in this enlightened land +of ours, that there is in the cat a certain number of bad qualities--a +certain spice of the devil, so to speak--that never can be bred out. +This is simply absurd, for there is no animal that lives and breathes on +God's fair earth but is susceptible of improvement, both physically and +morally; for, remember, a cat, little as you may think of her, has a +mind _and a soul_, as well as you have. She has thought, and memory, +and reasoning powers; she can love and she can fear, can be happy and +gay, or sad and sorrowful, and she knows something too of the mystery of +death. + +With all these qualities will you tell me that she cannot be improved? +I say she can; even as to race; for what can be accomplished with +individual cats, may be accomplished with the whole race. I can +introduce you to dozens of cat-fanciers in this country, who have made +the peculiarities of pussy's nature their study, and who find that they +can, at will, not only improve the physical condition of their cats; but +even, by careful training, occasional gentle correction, kindness, and +good-feeding, raise them from good to better, and wean them from the +ways which are so objectionable in other, or merely half-domesticated +cats. And, look you, the progeny of such animals--by a law well-known +to all breeders--take after them, or inherit the good qualities of their +parents. Hence, I repeat, if you can improve the individual cat, +through time you may improve the _genus_. That time may be long in +coming--granted; but that the lovers of cats, in this country, have +boldly seized the bull by the horns, and are taking a step in the right +direction, is a positive fact which admits of no denial. + +Now, to those who are fond of cats, and would fain improve the +particular breed they have a fancy for, and probably win prizes at our +great shows, I beg to offer the following hints:-- + +_First_. Having made up your mind as to what particular breed you mean +to go in for, stick by that breed for a time, at least, and go in for no +other. + +_Secondly_. Be careful in your selection of parents. For instance: we +will suppose you mean to breed pure white Angoras; well, purchase at a +first-class show a Tom kitten and a queen kitten _from different +litters_. Choose the liveliest, biggest, and most healthy-looking +kitten of each litter, not, as in choosing pups, the heaviest and +sleepiest-looking. The funny kitten turns out the best cat, and is more +easily trained than a sulky or frightened one. + +Having gotten your purchases home, remember that the royal road to a +kitten's affection is straight through its stomach. Be, yourself, then, +the first to present pussy with a saucer of warm, creamy milk. + +_Thirdly. How to get size_. This is accomplished by the quantity and +quality of pussy's food, and the regularity with which she gets her +meals. Whatever you give a young cat, and a growing cat to eat, do not +let it be too abundant. Never let her gorge herself; give her little +and often. Don't let her want for a saucerful of pure water, to which +she can always find access. Let her allowance of milk be put down to +her and taken up again when she has had all she wants; what she leaves +had better be given to the pigs. Bad milk is a fruitful source of +diarrhoea, dysentery, and some forms of skin disease. A little +sulphur--about as much as will lie on a fourpenny-bit--should be given +at least once a fortnight, or half that quantity once a week. + +Train your cats early to habits of cleanliness. Don't forget the +flower-pot saucer; and remember that, if the cats you wish to take +prizes with, belong to any of the finer breeds, they _must_ be parlour +cats, and not kitchen-bred brutes. + +If you want your cats to grow large, let their food be nourishing but +not stimulating; boiled cow's or sheep's lights they can eat their +stomachs full of; but avoid beef, it is too gross and heating, and don't +patronise the cat's-meat man. + +Kittens and growing cats, in order to grow large, must have plenty of +exercise and fun. Leaping exercise is best. Teach them to jump through +a hoop, and keep them at it. They ought to have a ball as a toy, or a +hare's foot; and ridiculous as it may seem to many, it is a positive +fact, that cats--especially queen cats--thrive best who have a +looking-glass conveniently placed to admire themselves in, and to wash +and dress in front of. + +"Ilka little maks a mickle," is a good old Scotch proverb, and believe +me it is attention to little matters, to minutiae, which makes one +successful in properly rearing any animal. + +_Fourthly. How to get Good Pelage on a Cat_. The feeding of course has +much to do with the length and gloss of the coat. Fish I have found is +good for the coat, and a mixed diet generally, with not too much +vegetables to scour them. But your sheet-anchors, after all, are the +brush and the comb. The comb must be fine, and not too close in the +teeth, and it should be used gently, after which brush the coat briskly +all over with a long-haired soft hair-brush--a baby's brush in fact. +The comb is not only a gentle stimulant to the skin, but it prevents +matting, while the brush removes dust, and gives a nice glitter to the +pelage. Both together act as a charm. + +_Fifthly_. In cats other than white you will find that certain kinds of +food strengthen the colours of the pelage. I am convinced, for +instance, that boiled bullock's lights do, and so does sheep's blood. +This fact is perhaps worth knowing. I am making experiments with other +foods and some condiments, but am not yet in a position to state +results. + +_Sixthly. Breeding for colour_. No matter what colour your parent cats +are, you will occasionally find waifs and strays in a litter that you +will wonder to find of a different colour. But do not be discouraged; +stick only to the true colours, and you will find in time that such +anomalies will become few and far between. Be careful to avoid the +possibility of any litter of kittens having more than one father. + +_Seventhly_. In young cats, which you are breeding to take prizes with, +begin to look out for symptoms of the queen's getting gay, any time +after six months, and on the first signs lock her up for a week, or +until she becomes herself again. Do not think of breeding from a cat +you mean for the show-bench until she is at least eighteen months old, +else you will spoil her for size. + +Some people fancy that to manage cats properly, and guide their breeding +to the Tom you desire them to, is very difficult. I have not found it +so. There is a little trouble, certainly, but you are amply rewarded, +when you find on the birth of the kittens that you have been successful. +The only thing you've got to do, is to watch the queen well, and lock +her up for a night or two with her own lord in an outhouse. Then +afterwards keep her prisoner by herself for ten days. The danger is +quite past then. + +_Eighthly_. About a week before any important show, be more than +usually careful with the grooming, etc, of your cats, and feed them up a +bit; give them an extra allowance of milk and cream, and boiled rice and +sugar, and occasionally mutton and mutton-broth, but take great care not +to induce diarrhoea. + +_Ninthly_. Send them to the show in a basket lined with flannel and a +cushion, and pretty collar or ribbon to match the colour of the coat. +Let the colour of the cushion be also effective, and in keeping with +pussy's jacket. + +As to cat-shows themselves, I have nothing but good to say. All +prosperity to their promoters and patrons! They are in general, indeed +almost invariably, well managed, and the cats are carefully caged, +properly tended and fed, and no lady need apprehend the slightest danger +to her feline favourite, in being sent to any of our great shows. It is +seldom, if ever, that a cat is lost, the baskets containing the pussies +never being opened, until inside the building, and then only with the +greatest care. Indeed, one needs to be pretty cautious in handling a +strange cat. Your well-bred beauties, in particular, make it a rule to +stand no nonsense. + +The cats are fed morning and night, and regularly supplied with the best +and sweetest milk which the town can afford. Indeed, altogether, the +poor things appear quite as happy as they are at their own firesides. +If it is a four-day show, they soon come to know and welcome with gloved +hand, the girl attendants every time they pass. There is no +head-splitting noise and din as there is in a dog-show. Peace and quiet +and serenity reign everywhere in a cat-show. + +At nearly all the shows--at all events at all the _great_ shows--Mr +Sillet, the well-known naturalist of Southampton, has the arrangement of +the pens or cages for the pussies. And very well he does his work too. +Every cage is supplied with a box for sand at the back, and in the fore +part with a beautiful soft cushion. The boxes are emptied daily, and +disinfectants are also used, so that everything is sweet and clean. The +entries at some of our national shows, such as the Crystal Palace and +Birmingham, number between three and four hundred, and every year I +trust the numbers will be increased. + +You see then, reader, that no danger can accrue from sending your feline +favourite to a show, and I may tell you also that if she is anything +like good at all, she is almost sure of finding herself placed. +Cat-shows are only in their infancy, and anyone who _chances_ to have a +good cat, may nowadays take prizes. In future years, there will be no +chance work about the matter at all, and those only who study the +breeding and rearing of cats in a scientific and sensible manner will be +the winners. + +When you send your entry form up to the secretary, be careful you have +placed your pussy in the right class, not only as to breed but as to +sex, whether male, female, or gelded. As to breed, you must attend to +the colour and also to the length of the coat. + +There are classes for all kinds of cats, and a class for anomalies +besides. + +I am often sorry, when judging at shows, to have to disqualify many a +beautiful specimen of the feline race, because it has been carelessly +entered in a wrong class. If people only will read with some degree of +attention the description of each class, given in the schedules, they +need never make this mistake. + +To such clever and energetic managers of shows as Mr Wilson, of the +Crystal Palace, who seems to have adopted the motto of the Cameron clan, +"Whatever a man dares he can do," or sensible Mr Chaplin, of +Birmingham, or Mr Brown, of Edinburgh, or Mr Martin, of Glasgow, I +have positively nothing to suggest. Let anyone who wants to get up a +cat-show take a lesson out of the books of either. + +To amateur managers I may say this: Be very tender and gentle with the +feline property entrusted to your care; remember not only that cats are +extremely nervous and sensitive creatures, but also that numbers of them +have a value in the eyes of their owners far above money and above +price. + +Feed with Spratt's Patent Cat Food. This ought to be used at all shows; +it has the advantage of being cleanly, handy, and wholesome. A small +allowance of boiled lights may be added. + +Use chloride of lime, not too much of it, as a disinfectant. + +Fill the utility boxes with plain garden mould or sand, but _never put +charcoal in it_. That soils the fur, and doesn't give a white cat the +chance of looking well. + +_Never put sawdust in a cat's cage_. It gets into the milk and spoils +it, and if they lick it it will make them ill. + +Do not receive a cat that is suffering from illness of any sort. + +If a cat should appear to be ill any time during the exhibition, have +her carefully removed and sent home. + +Finally, if possible, have beautifully ornamented prize cards, and send +them home neat and clean to the successful exhibitors. These cards are +greatly valued, and generally framed and hung in a conspicuous place. + +No one, except the initiated, can have any idea what an important little +creature a cat becomes that has once taken a prize. She is then more +than ever the valued pet of her owners, and an object of interest even +to the neighbours. + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +ON CRUELTY TO CATS. + + "He prayeth well, who loveth well, + Both man, and bird, and beast; + He prayeth best, who loveth best, + All things both great and small, + For the dear God who loveth us, + He made and loveth all." + + Coleridge. + +I am fond of cats, and am never happier than when I am writing about +them; nevertheless, it is with feelings the very reverse of pleasant +that I commence the present chapter. Were I to consult my own comfort, +I should avoid the subject of cruelty to cats, and it is only with the +hope, that I may be the means of doing some little good to poor harmless +pussy, that I approach the matter at all. + +I am not a sentimentalist by any means, yet I abominate wanton cruelty. +I am fond of animals, yet not maudlinly so. I am not a vegetarian; and, +although I neither believe that all animals were made for man's use, nor +that man was made for theirs (as, you remember, was the opinion of the +pampered goose), still I think we are right to kill and to use them as +food. So I am fond of fishing, and fond too of shooting, and I can see +nothing in the Bible against either practice. The very reverse, indeed, +and everywhere in nature we observe that God permits one animal to prey +upon another; and can the Lord Himself do wrong? + +Yet, albeit I love sport and shooting, I do not think I am cruel. All +my animals love me. My fishes know me, and come to be fed; my birds +flutter their wings with affectionate excitement when I approach their +cage; my white rats run to me when I call; my cat certainly never rushes +up the chimney when I enter the room; and when I am dead I know my dogs +will miss me. + +Now, what I particularly object to is wanton and unnecessary cruelty. +If we have to, and must, put the lower animals to death, in order that +we--the higher animals--may live, we ought to do so as humanely as +possible; and never, on any account, should we torture animals for mere +sport. Hence I object to cock-fighting, pigeon or sparrow-shooting, and +ratting--all mean and cowardly employments, and quite unfitted for men +above the rank of the commonest navvy. I see no harm in deer-stalking +in Scotland, where the deer are as wild as the hare or coney; but I do +see very great cruelty in what is called stag-hunting in England. The +stag in England is a domesticated animal, and I do not see that there is +greater pluck or courage needed in hunting it, than there would be in +chasing a decent old Alderney cow. I had travelled pretty nearly all +over the world, and had shot in Africa, India, and Greenland, before I +witnessed the first English stag-hunt. If my sympathies had not been +all with the poor stag, I should have been highly amused indeed. The +first stag wouldn't move at all; he looked upon the matter as too good a +joke. "No, beggar me," he seemed to say, "if I'll budge an inch, to +please anybody!" And he didn't. Yet this stag-hunting, they will tell +you, seriously, keeps up the national courage. Believe me, reader, +English courage requires no such keeping up, and it will be a poor day +for this country when it does. Besides, it is only gentlemen (?) who +hunt; and, well as our army is officered, it is, after all, the men who +do the fighting; and it has always struck me that good beef and mutton, +together with a determination to do their duty, are the mainstays on +which our soldiers depend in the day of battle. + +A great deal, I think, of the cruelty which is inflicted on the poor +cat, is done through ignorance of pussy's nature and constitution; done +unwittingly, and with no real intention of doing the animal an injury. + +It is very cruel indeed to starve the creature, with the idea that you +will induce her to catch more mice. When a cat is hungry the system is +weak, the mind is dull, and the nerves so far from being well-strung +that she will do anything sooner than hunt. A well-filled stomach gives +pussy patience, and that is much wanted for mouse-killing; besides, you +must not forget that cats kill mice as much for the sport as anything +else. + +Another very common form of cruelty is that of turning the cat out every +night. Cats need their comforts, and enjoy them too, more than any +other domestic animal we possess. Leaving her out at night not only +exposes her to colds, inflammations, and various diseases, but it leads +her to contract bad habits; and she eventually gets trapped or killed, +and no wonder; is she not, through your carelessness, a nuisance to the +whole neighbourhood? + +It is cruel not to feed your cats with regularity. They expect it, and +need it; and, if they do not get it, what else can you expect but that +your cat will become a thief? + +What is called "wandering" cats is extremely cruel. A man has no +further use for his cat, so he "wanders" her. I assure you it would be +far more humane to drown her at once. How would you, yourself, like to +be wandered--to be taken abroad somewhere, and placed down in the centre +of savages; hungry and cold, and longing and pining for the home you +left behind you; and in danger every moment of being cruelly slain? +Don't you think that speedy dissolution were more to be desired than +such a life? + +It is cruel, when your cat has kittens, to permit more to live than you +can find decent homes for. It is a shame to a poor little kit, after it +has opened its eyes to the wonders all around it, and begun to get happy +and funny. Always keep one or two kittens for sake of the mother, and +try, if possible, to find some one to take them. But the worst form of +unintentional cruelty is that of leaving your poor favourite at home, +when you go to the seaside, or to summer quarters. Often and often, on +the return of the family, the unhappy cat is found lying in the empty +hall, dead or dying, and wasted away to a mere handful of bones and +skin--this in itself testifying to the sufferings she must have +undergone for the want of food and water. Such gross _carelessness +ought to be made penal_. I do not know whether the Society has ever yet +prosecuted anyone for thus cruelly starving a cat, but I should think it +would have little difficulty in obtaining a conviction. + +I come now to mention some cases of intentional and specific cruelty, +and shall be as brief as possible. + +Some men, both young and old, think that a cat is a fit subject for +torture and cruelty of all kinds; hence they never miss the chance of +shying a stone after pussy's retreating figure. Cases, too, are +continually cropping up in the police courts, of men having tortured +cats to the death with dogs. + +Cat skins are considered of some value by the furriers. At a sale not +long since in London, there were some three thousand cat skins. Where +think you, reader, do these come from? That is a question unfortunately +only too easily answered. In almost all large cities there exists a +gang of ruffians--you cannot call them by a milder name--who eke out a +sort of livelihood by stealing cats by every available means and method. +But worse than this remains to be told; it is darkly whispered, and I +have some reason to believe it may be but too true, that many of those +poor cats are _skinned alive_, in the belief that the living skin thus +procured retains the gloss. + +In Greenland I have seen young seals flayed alive by the score. That +was a sickening sight enough, but skinning alive a poor harmless cat +must be many times worse. I wish I could say that it was only the +lowest class of ruffians that ill-treat poor cats to the death, but--and +I know this for certain--there are men who pass as gentlemen, who night +after night set traps for cats that stray into their gardens, and kill +them in the cruellest manner; and some of these fellows, too, keep +neither poultry, pigeons, nor rabbits, and haven't a flower in their +gardens worthy of the name, only _they hate cats_. I know one gentleman +(?) who thus traps and kills cats because he has a passion for fur rugs, +which he thus indulges on the cheap. + +Little boys, and those too, sometimes the sons of respectable parents +who ought to have taught them better, are often dreadfully cruel to +cats, stoning them wherever found, and setting dogs to worry them to +death. + +A lady, a friend of mine, once attracted by the heartrending cries of a +cat, found two young fiends, with a pretty pussy tied in an apron, +gouging its eyes out with a nail! + +A common form of cruelty to cats, in some rural districts of England, is +that of tying two of them together by the tails and hanging them over a +rope or pole to fight to the death. + +Such cases as that of cutting cats' tails off for wanton mischief, +burning or boiling cats alive, though not unknown, I am happy to say are +very rare. + +Now, considering how very useful an animal a cat is, I think it is high +time the law interfered to protect her from violence and ill-usage. + +I should like to see a tax imposed upon all cats, and a home for lost +cats, precisely on the same principles as the home for lost and starving +dogs, only with this difference, that there should be no reward offered +for bringing a cat to the home. Remember this, that a stranger or +starving cat will come to anyone who says a kind word to it, so +policemen would have no difficulty in catching them. + +The revenue from the imposition of even a small tax would be very large, +and it would not only help to clear the country of a whole army corps of +thieving, prowling, homeless cats, but give to the cats of respectable +people a greater value in the eyes of the law, and a greater chance of +taking their walks abroad without being molested. + +We have a law to protect even our wild birds, why not one for the +protection of my friend the harmless, useful cat? + +In conclusion, let me assure lovers and owners of cats, that, as the law +stands at present, the only way to keep their favourites alive, and free +from danger, is to be kind to them, feed them well and teach them, as +far as possible, to keep to the house at night. + +We think that men who kill, and trap, and injure our cats are +exceedingly cruel. And so they are, and I hope they will in time learn +to be a shade more merciful. At the same time, don't forget that the +temptation to take revenge upon a cat for vines destroyed, beautiful +flowerbeds torn up, favourite rabbits murdered in their hutches, and +valuable pigeons torn and eaten in their dovecots, is a very great +temptation indeed. You see, reader, there are two sides to every +question. + +Pray think of the matter. + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +PUSSY'S TRICKS AND MANNERS. + +When I was a boy, it used to be a positive pain to me to have to enter a +large library and choose a book. I used to wander round and round the +well-filled shelves like a butterfly floating over a clover-field. I +didn't know where to alight. I would fain have begun at the beginning, +and read the lot--but that was impracticable. Hence my difficulty. I +am in a somewhat similar fix now. I have so many original anecdotes of +cat life and customs that I don't know which to tell. + +If I had space at command you should have the whole lot, and I would +arrange them into classes according to their character; as it is, I must +be content to present the reader with some account of a few of pussy's +tricks and manners, deduced from these and from my own rather large +experience of cat life. + +Every child knows how fond cats are of hunting and catching mice, but no +cat of any respectability would think of confining her attentions to +mice alone. The very presence of a cat about a house will usually +suffice to keep these destructive pests at bay; and if one should pop +out of its hole, it knows, or ought to know, what to expect. But seldom +will a high-bred cat condescend to eat a mouse. She will play with it +as long as hope keeps up its little heart; when that fails it, pussy +turns it over once or twice to see whether it is really dead or only +shamming, and then walks disdainfully away. The next higher game is +rats, but these she seldom cares to eat, only she kills them on the +spot. She knows that rats have teeth and can use them, so she doesn't +romp with them. I have known rats inflict such severe wounds upon a cat +that they ultimately proved fatal. + +Cats delight to spend a day in the woods, bird-catching. They rob the +nests, too, when they find any, and cases have occurred of a cat paying +visits to nests day after day until the young were hatched, then eating +them. (I once had a blackbird's nest in the side of a bank at the +roadside--a strange place for a blackbird to build. I often used to see +a polecat close to, and I am convinced it knew of the nest, but it never +robbed it until the young were hatched.) + +Nearly all cats who live in the country hunt over the hills and the +woods, and a great plague, too, gamekeepers find them. There is no +animal which a cat may meet in the covers that she is not a match for. +Polecats and weasels have to own her sway, while rabbits and leverets +fall an easy prey to her prowess. + +Most cats, who are well treated by their owners, have a habit of +bringing everything home which they catch. I have often seen a cat come +trotting homewards, carrying in its mouth a rabbit well-nigh as big as +herself. + +Cats may therefore be called poachers; and it is curious, but true, that +when a poor man owns a cat who poaches, and brings home the quarry, he +usually winks at it. + +I have dozens of well-authenticated anecdotes of cats who are very +expert at fishing. I have, myself, watched a cat by the banks of a +stream, until I have seen him dive into the water, and emerge almost +immediately with a large trout in his mouth. Cats who fish, generally +belong to millers, or are bred and reared somewhere near a river. They +not only catch fish of all sorts, but even water-rats; often springing +many feet off the bank after prey of this kind, and even diving under to +secure it. In Scotland cats often attack and destroy large quantities +of salmon in small streams, in the spawning season. + +Cats are supposed to have an antipathy to water, and, as a rule, this is +so. They are very cleanly animals, and it has often amused me to watch +a pussy crossing a muddy street. How eagerly she looks out for the dry +spots, how gingerly she picks her steps, and, when she does tread in a +pool, with what an air of supreme disgust she stops and shakes the +offending foot! + +Cats swim well, nevertheless. I have seen a cat take the water as +coolly as an Irish spaniel, swim the river, hunt in the woods for some +time, and then swim back again with a bird in her mouth. And, to save +their kittens from drowning, almost any cat will swim a long distance. + +I have known a cat whose favourite fish was the eel, and he always +managed to catch one somehow. + +Cats are very fanciful at times, and very self-opinionated. If a cat +takes a fancy to a particular house, or part of the house, it is +difficult to dislodge her. + +"In the year 1852," a lady writes me, "my mother was living with a +family in the Albany Road, Camberwell, who had a large tabby Tom cat. +This cat had formed a strong attachment to a kitten who belonged to the +lady next door. In 1853, the family removed to the Ashby Road, Lower +Road, Islington, and the cat was _packed in a hamper_, and sent with the +furniture. + +"It was kept in confinement the first day and night, and let out the +next morning. Tabby had his feet buttered, to keep him employed, as +they said it was a good thing to keep him busy. The next day he had +disappeared, no one knew whither, though search was made for him +everywhere. + +"A few days after, the lady from Camberwell wrote to say that Tabby had +put in an appearance there, and resumed the charge of his kitten. He +was sent back by the carrier to his proper owner, and every means was +tried to induce him to stop; but he returned the second time to the +kitten, and so they let him remain, because they knew he would be well +taken care of. The wonderment of this was: _which bridge did he go over +in passing through busy London_?" + +It is really wonderful how a cat can often find its way, long distances +across a country which he never before may have traversed. + +"A few days ago," says another correspondent, "a lady who lives in +Newport told me that, at one time, her house was quite overrun with +mice; and, having procured the loan of a cat which was considered a good +mouser, she tied it into a basket, and then placed it in a concealed +part of the pony carriage. On her arrival at the `Cliff' the prisoner +was released; but even the prospect of a delicious feast of mice could +not obliterate its thoughts of `home, sweet home;' and, after about an +hour's stay, it set off, and, ere long, arrived at its former abode-- +distant three miles!" + +Some months ago, a half-bred Persian tabby, came to my place, and has +since then stuck to it with all the persistency of Edgar Allan Poe's +raven. He is a cat that seems to have nothing to recommend him; if he +would come into the house, and behave like a civilised being, I would +never grudge him his daily dole. But he prefers to live a half-pagan +existence, out among the bushes, and take his nap of a night in the +coal-house; and Bridget says he is an awful thief, and that she can't +leave the kitchen-door open one moment for fear of him. I've often +asked that cat to take his departure, but, as plain as cat can speak, +that cat says "never more." + +By way of experiment I have caught him several times--no easy task, I +assure you--and _sent him_, securely packed in a hamper, distances of +three, four, and five miles to friends who have set him free. And he +always came back. His last journey was at Christmas-time--may Heaven +forgive me this sin!--to the house of a parson _whom I did not know_, +and I stuck some pheasants' feathers too just under the lid. I don't +know what the parson thought, but Tom came back next day, not looking a +single bit put out, and--I am willing to sell him to anyone who may have +need of his services. + +I know a cat who caught two sparrows at once, and when retreating, a +third sparrow pursued and attacked him. This one pussy also killed, +with his paw. That was funny! + +Cats know certain days of the week, such as Sunday for instance, and +they also know certain hours of each day. I don't mean to say they look +at the clock, but, if a favourite master or mistress is in the habit of +coming home every day, say at 4 p.m., there you will often find that +every day at 4 p.m. pussy will trot down the road to meet her and wait +till she comes. + +Cats make good husbands, gentle fathers, and the most tender and loving +of mothers. A cat will fight for her kittens, starve or _steal_ for +them. Oh! I daresay you imagine that stealing wouldn't be likely to +lie very heavily on a cat's conscience. Now listen to this--which the +printer will kindly put in italics--_all experience goes to prove that +well-fed, properly cared-for cats, are not thieves, but the reverse_. + +Cats have their kittens in queer places, at times. A lady's best Sunday +bonnet, or master's wig, or a set of ermine furs, just suits pussy to a +nicety. My cat once kittened in my cocked hat. It is a positive fact, +madam, and so far from thinking she had done anything to offend me, she +held up one of her brats for me to admire. But the queerest place for a +cat to kitten in, that ever I knew, was a tree. The cat scrambled up +the tree and brought forth her young in the nest of a wood-pigeon! I +didn't hear how the kittens got down again though, but I have every +reason to believe the story. Probably, when the kittens opened their +eyes they commenced playing with their mother's tail, and went +topsy-turvy to the ground. Well, _facilis descensus Averni_, and you +know cats always fall on their feet. I knew a man who kicked his own +cat out of his pigeon loft, three storeys high. He told me it didn't +seem to hurt her a bit, but rather increased her appetite. + +Whether cats have nine lives or not, they take a great deal of killing. + +I knew a cat that was drowned four times, and came home again as +unconcernedly as if nothing very unusual had happened. However, +drowning in the end seemed to get rather irksome to this pussy, and +after the fourth immersion, he ran away to the woods, and didn't come +back to be drowned any more. + +Many cases I know of parties having started off with puss in a bag to +drown her, and having stopped to talk to a friend on the way back found, +on their return, the cat sitting by the fire drying herself! I have +many instances of cats having been thrown from bridges and other high +places, with the intention of killing them, but without fatal effect. + +Cats have been buried alive for days and recovered after being dug up. +A cat of my acquaintance was sent to live at a mill. This seemed to +please pussy very much. You see there were plenty of mice in the mill, +and plenty of rats and fish in the mill-lead, so the cat made herself at +home. But in course of time pussy became the mother of two kittens, and +then the longing for her old home came back with a force too powerful to +be resisted. She determined, therefore, to return to her former +residence, and she did so, carrying her kittens one by one. The +distance she had to travel was two miles, and the night she chose was a +dark and stormy one. + +There were two cats who dwelt at the self-same house and had kittens at +the self-same time. All the kittens were drowned with the exception of +two, one being left with each mother. And now comes the curious part of +the business. These two mother-cats came to an amicable understanding, +that whenever the one was abroad the other should suckle and attend to +both babies, and this treaty was carried out to the letter. + +Cats are not only fond of human beings, but often get greatly attached +to other domestic animals, especially to the family dog. I know at this +moment a cat whose constant companion is a Dandy Dinmont; and a rough +one he is too, for, although he sleeps in pussy's arms every night, he +thinks nothing of pulling her all round the lawn by the tail at any +time, the cat herself seeming to enjoy the fun! + +Rabbits and cats often associate together on the most friendly terms, +even accompanying each other in long excursions, the cat on these +occasions electing herself protector of her feebler friend against +predatory dogs and other cats. + +A cat belonging to a friend of mine used to be constantly at war with +the dog, until one day, with a blow of her ungloved paw, she blinded the +poor animal in one eye. No mother could have been kinder to her child +than pussy was to this dog, after she saw what she had done. That she +bitterly repented the rash act is evident, for she watched beside him +night and day, until he grew well again; and now, they are the fastest +friends in the world, and the cat is the first to welcome the dog home +when he returns from a walk. + +As a proof of how cruel it is to take _all_ a cat's kittens away from +her, I may state that, thus bereaved, a cat will take to nursing even +chickens, or she will suckle puppies, hedgehogs, or rats. + +It is a funny thing that many cats can't bear music. Some will run out +of the room if they hear a fiddle played, and others will growl and +attack the musician. + +Cats can be easily taught to follow one in a country walk just like a +dog, and on these occasions they come much better to the sound of +whistling than to any other call. + +A well-bred cat will always teach its kittens habits of cleanliness, how +to watch for and catch mice, and also how to catch minnows in a shallow +stream. + +I have already said that cats, as a rule, when well treated, are not +thieves, but the very reverse. But when a cat does take to thieving for +a livelihood, she becomes quite a swell at it--shows how clever she is. + +Cats are considered in some parts of England to be of some value as an +article of diet. I have never to my knowledge eaten cat, so I cannot +give the reader any idea what they taste like. + +It is ridiculous to suppose, as some do, that a cat's breath has any +effect upon a baby either for good or for evil. Neither will a cat +bring blood from a child's temple by licking it with its rough tongue. + +An ugly old woman isn't necessarily a witch because she keeps a black +cat. Neither is a black cat a devil. + +They say that witches sail over the sea in riddles accompanied by their +black cats, and that they have rather a jolly time of it upon the whole, +having plenty to eat, and plenty to drink--flagons of wine, in fact. +Don't you believe it, reader. + +Cats are not afraid of snakes; but snakes, even the dreaded cobra, will +invariably give pussy a wide berth. + +Cats are fond of fish, absurdly so, and if you offer them even the +gold-fish, they won't feel offended. It is only out of respect for the +owner thereof that they don't devour the canary. They prefer canary +living, with the feathers on. It tickles their palates and makes them +laugh. + +Chickens are dainties in a cat's _cuisine_; they also rather like a nice +plump partridge, and won't refuse to suck an egg when occasion offers. + +Cats are, as a rule, Good Templars; the proof of which rule is this: I +had a Red Tabby Tom who would eat oatmeal and whisky until he couldn't +stand. The servants knew this failing, and encouraged him in his evil +ways; so that half his time, instead of being as sober as a judge--as +every decent, respectable cat ought--Tom was as drunk as a piper. + +It is funny to listen to a cat's concert about two o'clock in the +morning. Of course, if you are rather nervous, and want to go to sleep, +it isn't so funny. (N.B.--If cats were better treated, they would hold +their concerts in daylight in the garden, instead of at midnight on the +tiles. Mind you, there is something in that.) + +Altogether, cats are funny things, and the more you study them the +funnier you find them. That's so! + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +THE FIRESIDE FAVOURITE. + +The lines of some cats fall in pleasant places. Mine have. I'm the +fireside favourite, I'm the parlour pet. I'm the _beau ideal_, so my +mistress says, of what every decent, respectable, well-trained cat ought +to be--and I looked in the glass and found it so. But pray don't think +that I am vain because I happen to know the usages of polite society, +and the uses and abuses of the looking-glass. No cat, in my opinion, +with any claim to the dignity of lady-puss, would think of washing her +face unless in front of a plate-glass mirror. But I will not soon +forget the day I first knew what a looking-glass meant. I was then only +a cheeky little mite of a kitten, of a highly inquiring turn of mind. +Well, one evening my young mistress was going to a ball, and before she +went she spent about three hours in her dressing-room, doing something, +and then she came down to the parlour, looking more like an angel than +ever I had seen her. Oh, how she was dressed, to be sure! And she had +little bunches of flowers stuck on all over her dress, and I wanted to +play at "mousies" with them; but she wouldn't wait, she just kissed me +and bade me be a good kitten and not run up the curtains, and then off +she went. Yes; I meant to be an awfully good little kitten--but first +and foremost I meant to see the interior of that mysterious room. By +good luck the door was ajar, so in I popped at once, and made direct for +the table. Such a display of beautiful things I had never seen before. +I didn't know what they all meant then, but I do now, for, mind you, I +will soon be twenty years of age. But I got great fun on that table. I +tried the gold rings on my nose, and the earrings on my toes, and I +knocked off the lid of a powder-box, and scattered the crimson contents +all abroad. Then I had a fearful battle with a puff which I unearthed +from another box. During the fight a bottle of ylang-ylang went down. +I didn't care a dump. Crash went a bottle of fragrant floriline next. +I regarded it not. I fought the puff till it took refuge on the floor. +Then I paused, wondering what I should do next, when behold! right in +front of me and looking through a square of glass, and apparently +wondering what _it_ should do next, was the ugliest little wretch of a +kitten ever you saw in your life--a long-nosed, blear-eyed, +pingey-wingey thing. I marched up to it as brave as a button, and it +had the audacity to come and meet me. + +"You ugly, deformed little beast," I cried, "what do you want in my +lady's room?" + +"The same to you," it seemed to say, "and many of them." + +"For two pins," I continued, "I would scratch your nasty little eyes +out--yah--fuss-s!" + +"Yah--fuss-s!" replied the foe, lifting its left paw as I lifted my +right. + +This was too much. I crept round the corner to give her a cuff. She +wasn't there! I came back, and there she was as brazen as ever. I +tried this game on several times, but couldn't catch her. "Then," says +I, "you'll have it where you stand, and hang the pane of glass!" + +I struck straight from the shoulder, and with a will too. Down went the +glass, and I found I had been fighting all the time with my own shadow. +Funny, wasn't it? + +When mistress came home there was such a row. But she was sensible, and +didn't beat me. She took me upstairs, and showed me what I had done, +and looked so vexed that I was sorry too. "It is my own fault, though," +she said; "I ought to have shut the door." + +She presented me with a looking-glass soon after this, and it is quite +surprising how my opinion of that strange kitten in the mirror altered +after that. I thought now I had never seen such a lovely thing, and I +was never tired looking at it. No more I had. But first impressions +_are_ so erroneous, you know. + +My dear mother is dead and gone years ago--of course, considering my +age, you won't marvel at that; and my young mistress is married long, +long ago, and has a grown family, who are all as kind as kind can be to +old Tom, as they facetiously call me. And so they were to my mother, +who, I may tell you, was only three days in her last illness, and gave +up the ghost on a file of old newspapers (than which nothing makes a +better bed) and is buried under the old pear-tree. + +Dear me, how often I have wondered how other poor cats who have neither +kind master nor mistress manage to live. But, the poor creatures, they +are _so_ ignorant--badly-bred, you know. Why, only the other day the +young master brought home a poor little cat, he had found starving in +the street. Well, I never in all my life saw such an ill-mannered, rude +little wretch, for no sooner had it got itself stuffed with the best +fare in the house, than it made a deliberate attempt to steal the +canary. There was gratitude for you! Now, mind, I don't say that _I_ +shouldn't like to eat the canary, but I never have taken our own birds-- +no--always the neighbours'. I did, just once, fly at our own canary's +cage when I was quite a wee cat, and didn't know any better. And what +do you think my mistress did? Why, she took the bird out of the cage +and popped me in; and there I was, all day long, a prisoner, with +nothing for dinner but seeds and water, and the canary flying about the +room and doing what it liked, even helping itself to my milk. I never +forgot that. + +Some cats, you know, are arrant thieves, and I don't wonder at it, the +way they are kicked and cuffed about, put out all night, and never +offered food or water. I would steal myself if I were used like that, +wouldn't you, madam? But I have my two meals a day, regularly; and I +have a nice double saucer, which stands beside my mirror, and one end +contains nice milk and the other clean water, and I don't know which I +like the best. When I am downright thirsty, the water is so nice; but +at times I am hungry and thirsty both, if you can understand me--then I +drink the milk. At times I am allowed to sit on the table when my +mistress is at breakfast, and I often put out my paw, ever so gently, +and help myself to a morsel from her plate; but I wouldn't do it when +she isn't looking. The other day I took a fancy to a nice smelt, and I +just went and told my mistress and led her to the kitchen, and I got +what I wanted at once. + +I am never put out at night. I have always the softest and warmest of +beds, and in winter, towards morning, when the fire goes out, I go +upstairs and creep (singing loudly to let her know it is I) into my +mistress's arms. + +If I want to go on the tiles any night, I have only to ask. A fellow +does want to go on the tiles now and then, doesn't he? Oh, it is a +jolly thing, is a night on the tiles! One of these days I may give you +my experience of life on the tiles, and then you'll know all about it-- +in the meantime, madam, you may try it yourself. Let it be moonlight, +and be cautious, you know, for, as you have only two feet, you will feel +rather awkward at first. + +Did I ever know what it was to be hungry? Yes, indeed, once I did; and +I'm now going to tell you of the saddest experience in all my long life. +You see it happened like this. It was autumn; I was then about five +years of age, and a finer-looking Tom, I could see by my mirror, never +trod on four legs. For some days I had observed an unusual bustle both +upstairs and downstairs. The servants, especially, seemed all off their +heads, and did nothing but open doors and shut them, and nail up things +in large boxes, and drink beer and eat cold meat whenever they stood on +end. What was up, I wondered? Went and asked my mistress. "Off to the +seaside, pussy Tom," said she; "and you're going too, if you're good." +I determined to be good, and not make faces at the canary. But one +night I had been out rather late at a cat-concert, and, as usual, came +home with the milk in the morning. In order to make sure of a good +sleep I went upstairs to an unused attic, as was my wont, and fell +asleep on an old pillow. How long I slept I shall never know, but it +must have been far on in the day when I awoke, feeling hungry enough to +eat a hunter. As I trotted downstairs the first thing that alarmed me +was the unusual stillness. I mewed, and a thousand echoes seemed to +mock me. The ticking of the old clock on the stairs had never sounded +to me so loud and clear before. I went, one by one, into every room. +Nothing in any of them but the stillness, apparently, of death and +desolation. The blinds were all down, and I could even hear the mice +nibbling behind the wainscot. + +My heart felt like a great cold lump of lead, as the sad truth flashed +upon my mind--my kind mistress had gone, with all the family, and I was +left, forgotten, deserted! My first endeavour was to find my way out. +Had I succeeded, even then I would have found my mistress, for cats have +an instinct you little wot of. But every door and window was fastened, +and there wasn't a hole left which a rat could have crept through. + +What nights and days of misery followed!--it makes me shudder to think +of them even now. + +For the first few days I did not suffer much from hunger. There were +crumbs left by the servants, and occasionally a mouse crept out from the +kitchen fender, and I had that. But by the fifth day the crumbs had all +gone, and with them the mice, too, had disappeared. They nibbled no +more in the cupboard nor behind the wainscot; and as the clock had run +down there wasn't a sound in the old house by night or by day. I now +began to suffer both from hunger and thirst. I spent my time either +mewing piteously at the hall-door, or roaming purposelessly through the +empty house, or watching, watching, faint and wearily, for the mice that +never came. Perhaps the most bitter part of my sufferings just then was +the thought that would keep obtruding itself on my mind, that for all +the love with which I had loved my mistress, and the faithfulness with +which I had served her, she had gone away, and left me to die all alone +in the deserted house. Me, too, who would have laid down my life to +please her had she only stayed near me. + +How slowly the time dragged on--how long and dreary the days, how +terrible the nights! Perhaps it was when I was at my very worst, that I +happened to be standing close by my empty saucer, and in front of my +mirror. At that time I was almost too weak to walk, I tottered on my +feet, and my head swam and moved from side to side when I tried to look +at anything. Suddenly I started. Could that wild, attenuated image in +the mirror be my reflection? How it glared upon me from its glassy +eyes! And now I knew it could not be mine, but some dreadful thing sent +to torture me. For as I gazed it uttered a yell--mournful, prolonged, +unearthly--and dashed at me through and out from the mirror. For some +time we seemed to writhe together in agony on the carpet. Then up again +we started, the mirror-fiend and I. "Follow me fast!" it seemed to cry, +and I was impelled to follow. Wherever it was, there was I. How it +tore up and down the house, yelling as it went and tearing everything in +its way! How it rushed half up the chimney, and was dashed back again +by invisible hands! How it flung itself, half-blind and bleeding, at +the Venetian blinds, and how madly it tried again to escape into the +mirror and shivered the glass! Then mills began in my head--mills and +machinery--and the roar of running waters. Then I found myself walking +all alone in a green and beautiful meadow, with a blue sky overhead and +birds and butterflies all about, a cool breeze fanning my brow, and, +better than all, _water_, pure, and clear, and cool, meandering over +brown smooth pebbles, beside which the minnows chased the sunbeams. And +I drank--and slept. + +When I awoke, I found myself lying on the mat in the hall, and the +sunlight shimmering in through the stained glass, and falling in patches +of green and crimson on the floor. Very cold now, but quiet and +sensible. There was a large hole in my side, and blood was all about, +so I must have, in my delirium, _torn the flesh, from my own ribs and +devoured it_. [Not overdrawn. A case of the kind actually occurred +some years ago in the new town of Edinburgh.--The Author.] + +I knew now that death was come, and would set me free at last. + +Then the noise of wheels in my ears, and the sound of human voices; then +a blank; and then someone pouring something down my throat; and I opened +my eyes and beheld my dear young mistress. How she was weeping! The +sight of her sorrow would have melted your heart. "Oh, pussy, pussy, do +not die!" she was crying. + +Pussy didn't die; but till this day I believe it was only to please my +dear mistress I crept back again to life and love. + +I'm very old now, and my thoughts dwell mostly in the past, and I like a +cheery fire and a drop of warm milk better than ever. But I have all my +faculties and all my comforts. We have other cats in the house, but I +never feel jealous, for my mistress, look you, loves me better than all +the cats in the kingdom--fact--she told me so. + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +THE DUNGHILL CAT. + +I'm the dunghill cat--that is what I am. Nobody owns me, and I owe +allegiance to nobody. Nobody feeds me; nobody puts a saucer on the +ground and says, "Here, pussy, there's a drop of milk for you, my pet." +Nobody ever gave me a bit of fish in my life, and nobody, so far as I +can remember, ever called me pet names or spoke kindly to me. Not that +I care, you know, but I merely mention it, that's all. But don't you +despise me because I am only a poor dunghill cat. It isn't my fault but +my misfortune, as you shall presently hear. Circumstances over which I +had no control have rendered me what I am; but I am come of respectable +parents for all that. To be sure I could not swear to my father, not +knowing exactly who he was, and the mum herself being at times a little +hazy on the point. But my mother, madam, came from Egypt, and was +descended from a long line of noble ancestors in that beautiful land, +where, they tell me, there is bread enough for all, and where a poor cat +is honoured and respected, as she always ought to be. And the mum told +me that her original ancestors came over with the Conqueror--Cambyses, +you know--so that is good enough, surely. Yes, madam, without meaning +the slightest offence, I may just remind you that when your forebears +were dressed in pig-skins, and not much of that; when they wore +flint-headed spears, and stalked about the hills with painted faces, +doing attitudes and saying "Ugh!" when astonished, my progenitors dwelt +in palaces, loved and respected by all, and were considered the equals +of prince, or priest, or peer--what do you think of that? But I'm not +proud; I'm only the poor dunghill cat, that all the dogs chase, that all +the little boys stone, and Bridget shakes the broom at. Bridget never +can catch me, though--ha, ha! Won't I eat her canary, first chance--you +see if I don't. + +My earliest recollection is of being carried by the back of my neck, by +something or somebody that I afterwards discovered was my mother. I was +taken into a beautiful house, and deposited carefully on a rug in the +corner of a cupboard. Then my mother began licking me all over with her +tongue, when suddenly said a voice close alongside of me, "I declare +that pussy has been and gone and got another kitten--as if one cat of +the kind wasn't enough about the house. Sarah, go and put it where you +put all the others." + +I don't know who the others were, or where they were put; but I know +what Sarah did with me. She took me up with the hot tongs, mother +screamed and so did I, till I couldn't scream any more because the black +water was all around me. Then followed a period of agony, and then a +blank, and the next thing I recollect is finding myself lying, wet and +cold, in my mother's arms, and she all wet and cold as well as me. + +"My dear chee-ild," said my mamma, "this has been a sad morning; but +you're safe ne-ow, although the building is humble and your pallet is +straw. Shade of Cambyses!" continued the old lady, rubbing a paw over +her right ear, "why ever did I leave the land of Egypt?" + +When I got a little older I began to look around me. I thought our new +home was one of the jolliest places that could be, despite all the +flowery accounts my mother used to give me of the land of her birth, +with its marble halls and gorgeous tesselated pavements. It was a +large, roomy loft in an old, old mill, and I used to run about the floor +and chase the great spiders before I was big and brave enough to attack +a wild mouse, or the great, untamable rats that used to frighten me so +when mother was out, by standing on their hind legs and making dreadful +faces at me. But didn't they scamper off when mother came back! + +One day mother brought me a live mouse. How brave I suddenly felt. You +should have seen how I sprung on it, and heard how I growled. Had +anyone, even the immortal Cambyses himself, attempted to rescue that +wild mouse from my clutches, he should have died on the spot. How +pleased my mother looked! I think I see her yet, with her old-fashioned +face and her odd, old-world ways. Very much respected my mother was, I +assure you. I've seen no less than seven well-dressed feline swells +talking and singing to her all at once, and she didn't know which of +them to speak to first. Met a violent end, did my mother. +Verdict--"Killed by the carrier's collie." + +After I had slain and eaten one mouse, I felt every inch a Tom. I +declined to lie any more in my mother's arms. No more milk for me; +blood, and only blood, was my motto, and I meant it, too. When I was a +well-grown cat of nine months old my mother introduced me to her +mistress's house, and I became, for a time, a house-cat. I cannot say, +however, that I liked the change. The lady of the dwelling was, they +told me, exceedingly good and pious, went twice to church on Sunday, and +read prayers morning and evening; but, sad to say, she never had studied +feline economy. "If cats can't find mice to eat," she used to say, +"they ought to starve." + +My mother told me that this was something like asking a person to make +bricks without straw. My mother was very learned. + +Well, one evening--and I had been starving all day, and was dreadfully +hungry and too faint to watch for mice--I happened to stroll into the +pantry, and there I found such a nice, nice dish of cream. Luscious! +But what a thrashing I got five minutes afterwards--I wasn't hungry for +a week. Then the hunger came on again worse than ever, and I stole +again. I couldn't help it, really. Then I was called a nasty, thieving +brute, and got blamed many times when quite innocent. There is Briddy +with the broom again. She hasn't forgiven me for that herring yet, and +I can swear it wouldn't have kept for another day. Besides, what do I +care if it was for Master Fred's breakfast? Briddy had no business to +be upstairs trying on missus's Sunday bonnet, and the kitchen-door wide +open. She thinks I don't see all her capers, and her opening drawers, +and keeking into cupboards, and examining this, that, and t'other, when +her missus is out. But lying on the top of that wall I can see a great +deal more than I trouble to tell of. But Briddy blamed me for eating +those two new-laid eggs that the baker brought. She "just laid them +down outside in the strawberry-basket, m'm, for one minute; and when she +turned again, la, m'm, they was broke and eaten, they was!" She forgot +to mention how the baker crumpled her cap, though; and she didn't tell +how she was all over flour, and had to brush herself from top to toe +when the bell rang. But, mind you, it wasn't _me_ that stole the eggs. +I would confess at once if it was; for what could a couple of paltry +new-laid eggs add to the weight of crime I have been guilty of in my +day? Why, nothing. But Dr Ricket's jackdaw took the eggs, for I saw +him hop on to the wall, and he gave a look down, first, with one side of +his head, at Briddy and the baker, then, with the other side of his +head, to the eggs; then down he went, and it was all over in a moment--I +mean the eggs were. Just like Briddy, blaming me for that piece of cold +pork. Mind you, I don't say I wouldn't have taken it had I got the +chance, but I didn't. "That beautiful piece of pork gone next, m'm; and +I never can keep that cat out. And whatever shall I do, m'm?" + +But I wonder why Briddy didn't say a word about that visit she had from +the policeman. Much of a lover he is, anyhow. I could see him through +the window, and he never opened his mouth but to put something into it. +His courtship was _so_ un-Byronic, for he sat and he sat, and he chewed +and chewed, and glowered and glowered at Briddy, till I wondered she +didn't spit in his face and turn him out. Ah, Briddy, you needn't shake +the broom, what would you do without me? + +But to resume my story. One night I was shut up in a room by accident, +and no one heard me call, for I did call, and, in the morning, the room +wasn't just as it ought to have been, and for this new offence I was +condemned to die--taken away in a sack, and drowned. + +Not dead? Bless you, no; it wasn't likely I was going to remain at the +bottom of a mill-dam, in an old guano-bag. I was up again before you +could say mouse, and had swam on shore as cool as you like. It was a +beautiful day in early autumn, the fields were all ablaze with golden +grain, and the berries beginning to turn red and black in the hedgerows. +I sat down on a sheaf of wheat and basked till dry in the warm +sunshine. Then a young pheasant ran round the corner and cried, "Peet, +peet, have you seen my mother anywhere?" I thought I never had tasted +anything half so sweet in all my life. Then I felt a new Tom from top +to toe. Go back and be a house-cat? No, perish the thought. And I +never did. + +I am now fifteen years of age, and as I look back to the days that are +gone I cannot help exclaiming, "What a jolly life I've led." I've been +a Bohemian, a robber, a brigand, and a thief. "It is a sin, pussy," you +say; "why don't you reform?" "'Cause I won't," I answer. Had I been +differently brought up, better treated, better fed, and better +understood, I mightn't be what I am. I would then have been as honest +and virtuous as one of good Mrs Peek's cats. She knows how to treat a +cat, and it is only a pity she isn't an Egyptian, she might have married +Cambyses. + +Well, well, as I said before, I'm now fifteen years of age; I've seen +many ups and downs in the world, but I suppose my day is wearing +through, and I must soon be preparing for the happy hunting-fields on +the other side of Jordan. + +Now, madam, you know I'm only a cat, a common dunghill cat, and have +only common dunghill notions, but here are my sentiments. Religion is a +beautiful thing when brought to bear on everyday life, and not put off +and on with your moire antique. But never you go away to church and +forget to give pussy her breakfast. + +And have your prayer-book in one hand if you like of a morning, but have +a nice bit of fish or a saucer of milk for pussy in the other, and the +beauty of the one hand will be reflected from the other, as the stars +are mirrored in the ocean's wave. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The End. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Domestic Cat, by Gordon Stables + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DOMESTIC CAT *** + +***** This file should be named 37329.txt or 37329.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37329/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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