Certain Cat Characteristics 



since the days when the cat was worshipped and her 

 body embalmed after death ! For in this modern, 

 unromantic age, the mummies were promptly dug 

 out and exported to England, where they sold at the 

 rate of fifteen dollars a ton as fertilizers. Some of 

 them, however, were carefully unwrapped and dis- 

 sected for scientific purposes. 



The intelligence of cats is easily proven by the ease 

 with which they learn to do tricks. And here, too, 

 the difference between them and dogs is particularly 

 noticeable. A dog is taught too often by means of 

 harsh words and blows : a cat can be taught nothing 

 in that way. He must be persuaded, gently and with 

 infinite patience, when his comprehension of what the 

 trainer wants is almost startling. 



A neighbor once had a cat that would kneel down 

 at a hassock when she was told to say her prayers, 

 and remain there devoutly with clasped paws until a 

 hoop was held above her, when she would spring 

 through it with the agility and the irreverence of a 

 circus lady in tights. This same " Mollie" insisted on 

 having her meals in a chair beside her master at table, 

 and when she had finished, invariably proceeded to the 

 kitchen and hunted up the broom, whereupon she care- 

 fully picked her teeth by drawing the straws skilfully 

 between them. I have repeatedly seen " Old Mollie " 

 do this: it should be added that she was not taught this 

 trick, but took it up naturally from an evident desire to 

 keep her teeth as clean as she did her pretty gray fur. 



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