54 
House & Garden 
Historical evidence shows 
that cats have associated 
with man for nearly 3,000 
years -— perha ps even 
longer. Yet rare, indeed, 
is the person who can 
truthfidly scy that he 
really understands them, 
knows all the twists and 
tarns of their strange na¬ 
tures. They are at once 
demonstrative and in¬ 
scrutable, affectionate and 
reserved, simple and com¬ 
plex in their reactions. 
No one who knows cats 
can accuse them of any 
lack of intelligence and 
genuine mental emotions 
No motion picture star 
ever registered emotions 
more subtly or more 
clearly than do these rela¬ 
tives of the old Egyp¬ 
tians’ pets. Surprise, 
anger, interest, fear, con¬ 
tentment, desire, indiffer¬ 
ence, trust—there is no 
end to the list of feel¬ 
ings which cats exhibit 
by their actions and ex¬ 
pressions. Otie investiga¬ 
tor has gone so far as to 
assert that they have a 
definite langxiage of their 
own, with a vocabulary 
of 600 words and some¬ 
what resembling Chinese 
