THE CAT TO-DAY 251 



cats, and where hitherto no human hand had ever 

 dared to assail her. The dripping creature, furious, 

 frightened, outraged in her best feelings, flew to her 

 old friend for protection, went meekly back under 

 her sheltering cloak, and never again sought to 

 return to the now painful scene of her humiliation. 

 A ship cat loves its home as unswervingly as the 

 happier animal whose lot is cast amid gardens and 

 moonlit walls. To the landsman's prejudiced eye 

 there is little choice in boats, especially in the dis- 

 mal and dirty cargo boats " that sail the wet seas 

 roun'." They may be "England's pride; " but, as 

 permanent habitations, they seem to lack everything 

 that would appeal to the refined instincts and rest- 

 less habits of a cat. Yet Pussy is as faithful to her 

 " hollow oak " as poets have ever pretended to be, 

 and will not barter its manifold discomforts for the 

 pleasant firesides of earth. A very beautiful cat, 

 carried in infancy from some remote village in the 

 Apennines, was given as a mascot to the Italian 

 captain of an oil-tank steamer which ran between 

 Savona and Point Breeze, Philadelphia. In the 

 course of time she presented the ship with a family 

 of kittens, who were less than a month old when 

 the Philadelphia docks were reached. Like other 

 sailors, Pussy indulged in some irregularities while 

 on shore ; and, as the result of prolonged dissipa- 

 tion, she was found to be missing when the Bayonne 



