THE PERFECT PET, THE CAT 1 97 



In this role the kitten is inimitable. Noth- 

 ing can be so droll, and at the same time so 

 graceful and altogether charming, as the frol- 

 ics of two or three kittens. 



" Poor pussy " we naturally call the cat. Do 

 we know why ? Is it not in instinctive recog- 

 nition 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 char- 

 acter. 



And why, again, do we always give a cat the 

 feminine pronoun ? The Arabs have a tra- 

 dition 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 exceed- 



