SINGULAR ATTACHMENT OF CATS. ii 



very tired, wet, and hungry. After two days she was 

 brought back, and being well fed and carefully tended, she 

 roamed no more. 



The cat, like many other animals, will often form sin- 

 gular attachments. One would sit in my horse's manger and 

 purr and rub against his nose, which undoubtedly the horse 

 enjoyed, for he would frequently turn his head purposely 

 to be so treated. One went as consort with a Dorking 

 cock ; another took a great liking to my collie. Rover ; 

 another loved Lina, the cow; while another would cosset 

 up close to a sitting hen, and allowed the fresh-hatched 

 chickens to seek warmth by creeping under her. Again, 

 they will rear other animals such as rats, rabbits, squirrels, 

 puppies, hedgehogs ; and, when motherly inclined, will take 

 to almost anything, even to a young pigeon. 



At the Brighton Show of 1886 there were two cats, both 

 reared by dogs, the foster-mother and her bantling showing 

 evident signs of sincere affection. 



There are both men and women who have a decided 

 antipathy to cats — " Won't have one in the house on any 

 account." They are called " deceitful," and some go as 

 far as to say " treacherous," but how and in what way I 

 cannot discover. Others, on the contrary, love cats beyond 

 all other "things domestic." Of course cats, like other 

 animals, or even human beings, are very dissimilar, no two 

 being precisely alike in disposition, any more than are to be 

 found two forms' so closely resembling as not to be distin- 

 guished one from the other. To some a cat is a cat, and if 

 all were black all would be alike. But this would not be 

 so in reality, as those well know who are close observers 

 of animal and bird life. Of course the gamekeeper has 

 a dislike to cats, more especially when they " take to the 

 woods," but so long as they are fed, and keep within bounds, 

 they are " useful " in scaring away rats from the young 

 broods of pheasants. What are termed "poaching cats" 

 are clearly "outlaws/' and must be treated as such. 



