USEFULNESS OF CATS, 87 



USEFULNESS OF CATS. 



In our urban and suburban houses what should we do with- 

 out cats ? In our sitting or bedrooms, our hbraries, in our 

 kitchens and storerooms, our farms, barns, and rickyards, 

 in our docks, our granaries, our ships, and our wharves, 

 in our corn markets, meat markets, and other places too 

 numerous to mention, how useful they are ! In our ships, 

 however, the rats oft set them at defiance ; still they are of 

 great service. 



How wonderfully patient is the cat when watching for 

 rats or mice, awaiting their egress from their place of refuge 

 or that which is their home ! How well Shakespeare in 

 Pericles^ Act iii., describes this keen attention of the cat 

 to its natural pursuit ! 



The cat, with eyne of burning coal, 



Now crouches from (before) the mouse's hole. 



A slight rustle, and the fugitive comes forth; a quick, 

 sharp, resolute motion, and the cat has proved its usefulness. 

 Let any one have a plague of rats and mice, as I once had, 

 and let them be delivered therefrom by cats, as I was, and 

 they will have a lasting and kind regard for them. 



A friend not long since informed me that a cat at Stone's 

 Distillery was seen to catch two rats at one time, a fore foot 

 on each. All the cats kept at this establishment, and there 

 are several, are of the red tabby colour, and therefore most 

 likely all males. 



I am credibly informed of a still more extraordinary 

 feat of a cat in catching mice, that of a red tabby cat which 

 on being taken into a granary at Sevenoaks where there 

 were a number of mice, dashed in among a retreating 

 group, and secured four, one with each paw and two in her 

 mouth. 



