38 THE CAT ABOUT TO WN 



degree more docile or biddable than his country cousin. 

 He is more dependent on man, for no one ever hears of 

 a London cat going off to live a wild life willingly, 

 though country cats do this frequently. It has been 

 observed of the whole race, at least in this country, 

 that though they will often obey the order ' Come/ they 

 absolutely refuse to entertain the command * Go ;' and 

 as most useful service involves this as the initial idea, 

 the animal which refuses obedience to it is practically 

 useless except as a volunteer. The admirable sporting 

 qualities, even of the London cat, should make him a 

 most useful and amusing aid in sport, if he could be 

 induced to co-operate with his owner. There is only 

 one piece of evidence that in ancient times the cat was 

 so trained an Egyptian painting showing a cat bringing 

 wild-fowl to its master from a papyrus bed and very 

 few instances are on record even of its being trained 

 to retrieve in our day. A visitor to one of the 

 monasteries on Mount Carmel states that when several 

 of the monks went out, gun on shoulder, to shoot game 

 for the pot, he saw their cats marching out after them, 

 to aid as retrievers ; but he did not witness the sport. 

 There is no doubt that cats can be trained to follow, 

 like dogs. A working-man in the North Midlands 

 recently owned a small cat which followed him all day, 

 and when tired was carried in a large pocket in its 

 master's coat. So also a navvy some years ago owned 



