CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS. 101 



problems of animal psychology. It has received the name of " the 

 homing instinct/' and is regarded by some naturalists as constitut- 

 ing an additional sense. The dog seems usually to be more ready 

 than the cat to follow his master in a change of home, and to recon- 

 cile himself to the new place, but this may be because he stands in 

 a different relation toward him. The dog is sure of at least one 

 fast friend wherever he lives, while the cat can not always reckon 

 even upon that. In many families, where she is tolerated, as, 

 according to Buffon, only because she is less objectionable than 

 the rats and mice, she has no one to caress her or show affection 

 to her. In this case, when her situation is barely endurable, she 

 naturally fixes her attachment on the place where she has found 

 cozy retreats and knows all the hunting-grounds, rather than 

 upon persons who have given her no consideration, and of whom 

 she perhaps stands in fear. Whether the cat will in the long run 

 prefer its old home, deserted or inhabited by strangers, to a new 

 home, along with the persons it has been accustomed to meet, may 

 depend very much upon the treatment it has received from those 

 persons. My cat was removed three times in ten years ; and, aside 

 from the temporary embarrassment caused by finding herself in 

 a strange place, readily adapted herself to the new quarters, and 

 showed no disposition to go back to the old haunts. Lindsay, in 



Pig. 11.— Finely Marked Tortoise-Shell Cat. By permission, from Harrison Weir's Onr Cats 

 and all about Them. Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. 



his Mind in the Lower Animals, refers to cases of cats following 

 their masters from house to house, from place to place, and accom- 

 panying them on visits to other people's residences, as uncon- 

 cernedly as a dog. Wood tells of a family on the coast of Scot- 

 land who removed to the opposite shore — sailing around instead 

 of crossing the country — leaving their cat with a neighbor. But 

 the animal followed them, and found them in some way, present- 

 ing itself after a few weeks at their door, " weary, ragged, and 

 half starved." It had left its old home and gone out into the 

 unknown to seek the family with whom it had lived. A case pre- 



