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Cats the Perfect Pet.
Cat the Perfect Pet
In this role the kitten is inimitable. Nothing can be so droll, and at the same time so graceful and altogether charming, as the frolics of two or three kittens. " Poor pussy " we naturally call the cat. Do we know why ? Is it not in instinctive recognition of the strange fact that this gentle beast is the most generally misunderstood creature in the world ? His reserve, his self-reliance, his inextinguishable love of liberty, have earned for him a name totally unlike his real character. And why, again, do we always give a cat the feminine pronoun ? The Arabs have a tradition that when the first father and mother went out into the desert alone, Allah gave them two friends to defend and comfort them : for defence, the dog; for comfort, the cat. In the body of the dog he placed the soul of a brave man, in that of the cat the spirit of a gentle woman. The old notion that puss is incapable of friendship and attachments would not be worth attention did we not see it repeated to this day, and insisted upon as a well-proven fact. The contrary is the truth. The cat is exceedingly fond of his friends, and generous in his conduct to other animals. He is, to be sure, not demonstrative, nor does he kiss the hand that beats him ; and, as we go about in our blundering way, unless we are made uncomfortable by a show of affection, fairly forced upon us, as is done by the dog, we do not notice it, and conclude it does not exist. Puss does not express his emotions by barking, prancing about, and knocking one down ; but his quiet rubbing against his friend, his gentle touch of the tongue, mean quite as much as the more noisy greeting. The cat-mother's kindness to the young of other animals is notorious. She will adopt into her family and bring up with all the love and care she lavishes upon her own little ones, creatures so incongruous as chickens, ducks, foxes, squirrels, puppies, hedgehogs, and even rats. Moreover, she forms friendships of the warmest sort ; not only with dogs and horses, but with turkeys and fowls, readily giving up her warm bed by the fire to share the cold quarters of her friend. It has been commonly supposed that because a cat will not learn to do tricks like a dog he lacks intelligence ; whereas, the truth is, he is too knowing to be driven to learn. He is more like the apes, who the Africans say do not talk lest they be put to work. It is now known that if he chooses he can learn even more tricks than a dog, and go through them with greater precision, provided he is taught by kindness and coaxing. If struck he turns sulky; if frightened he will do nothing. Nor do we appreciate the usefulness of the cat. In some parts of the world cats are trained to act as carriers, and then they bring a high price. In Spain they are made free of garrets, where most of the grain is stored. Every attic granary has its small door under the roof for their use ; the roofs of the city are given up to them for a promenade, and many of them never come to the ground in their lives. In storehouses where grain attracts mice, puss is monarch of all he surveys, treated with due honors, supplied with food and drink, and in every way made welcome. If the whole cat race should be annihilated, we in America would speedily be brought to appreciate the service we have despised. The government of the United States maintains quite an army of cats, more than three hundred, it is said, for use in the Post-office Department. The duty of these public servants is to preserve postal matter and mailbags from rats and mice, which they do most effectually, because they are kept in good condition by proper feeding. Each postmaster in the larger cities is allowed a proper sum in some cases as much as forty dollars a year for " cat meat." Before cats were taken into service great loss was sustained from the teeth of the rodents, who thought nothing of boring through a pile of bags and letters in a single night.
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