Concerning Cats 



ent degrees, their sagacity. But there is as much 

 individuality in cats as in people. 



Dogs and horses are our slaves; cats never. This 

 does not prove them without affection, as some peo- 

 ple seem to think; on the contrary, it proves their 

 peculiar and characteristic dignity and self-respect. 

 Women, poets, and especially artists, like cats ; deli- 

 cate natures only can realize their sensitive nervous 

 systems. 



The Pretty Lady's mother talked almost incessantly 

 when she was in the house. One of her habits was to 

 get on the window-seat outside and demand to be let in. 

 If she was not waited upon immediately, she would, 

 when the door was finally opened, stop when half- 

 way in and scold vigorously. The tones of her voice 

 and the expression of her face were so exactly like 

 those of a scolding, vixenish woman that she caused 

 many a hearty laugh by her tirades. 



Thomas Erastus, however, seldom utters a sound, 

 and at the rare intervals when he condescends to purr, 

 he can only be heard by holding one's ear close to 

 his great, soft sides. But he has the most remarkable 

 ways. He will open every door in the house from 

 the inside ; he will even open blinds, getting his paw 

 under the fastening and working patiently at it, with 

 his body on the bUnd itself, until the hook flies back 

 and it finally opens. One housekeeper trained him 

 to eat his meat close up in one corner of the kitchen. 

 This custom he kept up after she went away, until new 



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