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CATS: Their Points and Characteristics.




[Illustration: "SHIPMATES."]




  "CATS:"

  THEIR POINTS AND CHARACTERISTICS,
  WITH CURIOSITIES OF CAT LIFE,
  AND A CHAPTER ON FELINE AILMENTS.


  BY _W. GORDON STABLES, M.D., C.M., R.N._,
  AUTHOR OF
  "MEDICAL LIFE IN THE NAVY," "WILD ADVENTURES IN THE FAR NORTH,"
  THE "NEWFOUNDLAND AND WATCH DOG," IN WEBB'S BOOK ON DOGS,
  ETC. ETC.


  LONDON: DEAN & SON,
  ST. DUNSTAN'S BUILDINGS, 160A, FLEET STREET, E.C.




CONTENTS.


  VOL. I.

  CHAPTER.                                                PAGE

      I. APOLOGETIC                                          1

     II. PUSSY ON HER NATIVE HEARTH                          3

    III. PUSSY'S LOVE OF CHILDREN                           26

     IV. PUSSY "POLL"                                       36

      V. SAGACITY OF CATS                                   44

     VI. A CAT THAT KEEPS THE SABBATH                       61

    VII. HONEST CATS                                        64

   VIII. THE PLOUGHMAN'S "MYSIE"                            70

     IX. TENACITY OF LIFE IN CATS                           74

      X. NOMADISM IN CATS                                   87

     XI. "IS CATS TO BE TRUSTED?"                           94

    XII. PUSSY AS A MOTHER                                 109

   XIII. HOME TIES AND AFFECTIONS                          125

    XIV. FISHING EXPLOITS                                  141

     XV. THE ADVENTURES OF BLINKS                          151

    XVI. HUNTING EXPLOITS                                  190

   XVII. COCK-JOCK AND THE CAT                             200

  XVIII. NURSING VAGARIES                                  209

    XIX. PUSSY'S PLAYMATES                                 221

     XX. PUSSY AND THE HARE                                230

    XXI. THE MILLER'S FRIEND. A TALE                       235

  ADDENDA. CONTAINING THE NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF THE
           VOUCHERS FOR THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE
           ANECDOTES                                       267


  VOL. II.

  CHAPTER.                                                PAGE

     I. ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE DOMESTIC CAT           278

    II. CLASSIFICATION AND POINTS                          285

   III. PUSSY'S PATIENCE AND CLEANLINESS                   307

    IV. TRICKS AND TRAINING                                319

     V. CRUELTY TO CATS                                    329

    VI. PARLIAMENTARY PROTECTION FOR THE DOMESTIC CAT      356

   VII. FELINE AILMENTS                                    366

  VIII. ODDS AND ENDS                                      387

    IX. THE TWO "MUFFIES." A TALE                          410

     X. BLACK TOM, THE SKIPPER'S IMP. A TALE               440

  ADDENDA. CONTAINING THE NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF THE
           VOUCHERS FOR THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE
           ANECDOTES                                       479




SPRATT'S PATENT

CAT FOOD.

[Illustration: TRADE MARK.]

It has long been considered that the food given to that useful domestic
favourite, the CAT, is the sole cause of all the diseases it suffers from;
nearly all Cats in towns are fed on boiled horseflesh, in many cases
diseased and conveying disease.

This Food is introduced to entirely supersede the present unwholesome
practice; it is made from pure fresh beef and other sound materials, not
from horseflesh or other deleterious substances. It will be found the
cheapest food to preserve the health and invigorate the constitution,
prolong the existence, and extend the usefulness, gentleness, and
cleanliness of the Cat.

_Sold in 1d. Packets only. Each Packet contains sufficient to feed a Cat
for two days. The wrapper of every Packet is the same in colour, and bears
the Trade Mark as above, and the name of the Patentee, and no other Packet
is genuine._


DIRECTIONS FOR USE.

Mix the food with a little milk or water, making it crumbly moist, not
sloppy.

SPRATT'S PATENT MEAT FIBRINE DOG CAKES, 22_s._ per cwt., Carriage Paid.

SPRATT'S PATENT POULTRY FOOD, 22_s._ per cwt., Carriage Paid.

SPRATT'S PATENT GRANULATED PRAIRIE MEAT CRISSEL, 28_s._ per cwt., Carriage
Paid.

_Address--SPRATT'S PATENT_,

HENRY STREET, BERMONDSEY STREET, TOOLEY STREET, S.E.




  TO
  LADY MILDRED BERESFORD-HOPE,
  AND
  LADY DOROTHY NEVILL,
  THIS WORK
  Is dedicated
  With feelings of regard and esteem,
  BY
  THE AUTHOR.




  CAT MEDICINE CHEST,

  _Beautifully fitted up with everything necessary
  to keep Pussy in Health, or to Cure her when Ill._

  The Medicines are done up in a new form, now
  introduced for the first time, are easy to
  administer, and do not soil the fur.

  A NICELY FINISHED ARTICLE,

  HIGHLY SUITABLE FOR A PRESENT.

  PRICE, with Synopsis of Diseases of Cats and their
  Treatment, 21s.

  LONDON: DEAN & SON,
  FACTORS, PUBLISHERS,

  Valentine, Birthday, Christmas, and Easter Card
  Manufacturers,

  ST. DUNSTAN'S BUILDINGS, 160A, FLEET STREET.




CATS.




CHAPTER I.

[_See Note A, Addenda._]

APOLOGETIC.


"If ye mane to write a preface to your book, sure you must put it in the
end entoirely."

Such was the advice an Irish friend gave me, when I talked of an
introductory chapter to the present work on cats. I think it was a good
one. Whether it be owing to our style of living now-a-days, which tends
more to the development of brain than muscle; or whether it be, as Darwin
says, that we really are descended from the ape, and, as the years roll
on, are losing that essentially animal virtue--patience; certainly it is
true that we cannot tolerate prefaces, preludes, and long graces before
meat, as our grandfathers did. A preface, like Curacoa--and--B, before
dinner, ought to be short and sweet: something merely to give an edge to
appetite, or it had as well be put in the "end entoirely," or better
still, in the fire.

I presume, then, the reader is fond of the domestic cat; if only for the
simple reason that God made it. Yes; God made it, and man mars it. Pussy
is an ill-used, much persecuted, little understood, and greatly slandered
animal. It is with the view, therefore, of gaining for our little fireside
friend a greater meed of justice than she has hitherto obtained, of
removing the ban under which she mostly lives, and making her life a more
pleasant and happy one, that the following pages are written; and I shall
deem it a blessing if I am _in any way_ successful. I have tried to paint
pussy just as she is, without the aid of "putty and varnish;" and I have
been at no small pains to prove the authenticity of the various anecdotes,
and can assure the reader that they are all _strictly true_.




CHAPTER II.

[_See Note B, Addenda._]

PUSSY ON HER NATIVE HEARTH.


"It wouldn't have surprised me a bit, doctor," said my gallant captain to
me, on the quarter-deck of the saucy _Pen-gun_,--"It wouldn't have
surprised me a bit, if they had sent you on board, minus the head. A nice
thing that would have been, with so many hands sick."

"And rather unconvenient for me," I added, stroking my neck.

I had been explaining to the gentleman, that my reason for not being off
the night before, was my finding myself on the desert side of the gates of
Aden after sun-down. A strange motley cut-throat band I had found myself
among, too. Wild Somalis, half-caste Indian Jews, Bedouin Arabs, and burly
Persian merchants, all armed with sword and spear and shield, and long
rifles that, judging by their build, seemed made to shoot round corners.
Strings of camels lay on the ground; and round each camp-fire squatted
these swarthy sons of the desert, engaged in talking, eating, smoking, or
quarrelling, as the case might be. Unless at Falkirk tryst, I had never
been among such a parcel of rogues in my life. I myself was armed to the
teeth: that is, I had nothing but my tongue wherewith to defend myself. I
could not help a feeling of insecurity taking possession of me; there
seemed to be a screw that wanted tightening somewhere about my neck. Yet I
do not now repent having spent that night in the desert, as it has
afforded me the opportunity of settling that long-disputed question--the
origin of the domestic cat.

Some have searched Egyptian annals for the origin of their pet, some
Persian, and some assert they can trace its descent from the days of Noah.
I can go a long way beyond that. It is difficult to get over the flood,
though; but I suppose my typical cat belonged to some one of the McPherson
clan. McPhlail was telling McPherson, that he could trace his genealogy
from the days of Noah.

"And mine," said the rival clansman, "from nine hundred years before
that."

"But the flood, you know?" hinted the McPhlail.

"And did you ever hear of a Phairson that hadn't a boat of his own?" was
the indignant retort.

In the midst of a group of young Arabs, was one that attracted my special
attention. He was an old man who looked, with his snow-white beard, his
turban and robes, as venerable as one of Dore's patriarchs. In sonorous
tones, in his own noble language, he was reading from a book in his lap,
while one arm was coiled lovingly round a beautiful long-haired cat.
Beside this man I threw myself down. The fierceness of his first glance,
which seemed to resent my intrusion, melted into a smile as sweet as a
woman's, when I began to stroke and admire his cat. Just the same story
all the world over,--praise a man's pet and he'll do anything for you;
fight for you, or even lend you money. That Arab shared his supper with
me.

"Ah! my son," he said, "more than my goods, more than my horse, I love my
cat. She comforts me. More than the smoke she soothes me. Allah is great
and good; when our first mother and father went out into the mighty desert
alone, He gave them two friends to defend and comfort them--the dog and
the cat. In the body of the cat He placed the spirit of a gentle woman; in
the dog the soul of a brave man. It is true, my son; the book hath it."

After this