“Take care of my poor kitten!” said the kind little Emma, as she sawthem take it away; and her loving spirit went to the land of lovingspirits.
When the sorrowing friends went into the adjoining room, the life ofher “poor kitten” had departed too.
Does not the fact that love and kindness can make such an irritableanimal as the cat so loving and grateful, teach us all theirheavenly power? Ought we not to do all which we can to bring outthis better nature?
We have made cats our slaves. We have taken them from the woods,that we may have them to catch our rats and mice. We make them dojust as we please, and ought we not to make them as comfortable andhappy as we can?
Can we not be patient with their bad or disagreeable qualities, andencourage all their good dispositions? We never know the truecharacter of any living being till we treat that creature withentire justice and kindness. I therefore am the friend of the poor,despised, abused, neglected, suspected, calumniated cat. I confessshe is sometimes a little disposed to thieving, that there arestrong reasons for supposing that she is somewhat addicted toselfishness, that she may justly be suspected of occasionalhypocrisy, and that she is to blame for too readily using her claws.
These are, all of them, human as well as cattish faults; but, ifpussy has in her the capacity for something better, for self-forgetting and devoted affection, we must treat her with suchpatient, enduring kindness and perfect justice as may cherish allthat is good in her nature. In short, can we not overcome her evilby our good? Let us try, boys!
One thing I have not yet told you in relation to cats, and that iswhat pets they are made in France. No drawing room seems completewithout a beautiful cat. The cats are well trained and are verygentle.
The Angora cat is most prized. She is fed with the greatest care,and, in all respects, is treated like a respected member of thefamily; and noticed, of course, by visitors. I have seen a beautifulcat go from one guest to another to be caressed like a little child.
These pet cats are playthings. They are not expected to catch ratsand mice, but are idle creatures, and only amuse themselves andothers. It is considered a special attention for any gentleman orlady to make a present of a pet cat.”
“What’s the use of cats who can’t catch rats and mice?” said Frank.”Do the French pet the mice, too? I wonder what comes of the breadand cheese?”
“O, the people have another set of cats, whom they call gutter cats,who catch rats and mice. The gutter cats never come into the drawingroom; but they are treated well in the kitchen, and made as happy aspossible.
I was told that these working cats were far more intelligent thanthe pets of the drawing room.
I knew a French seamstress who had a gutter cat, of which she wasvery fond. One day the cat fell from the roof of the house. Sheseemed dead, but her faithful friend put her upon a soft bed, gaveher homoeopathic medicine, and watched all night by her to put adrop of something into her mouth if she moved. At last the cat gavesigns of life, and by good nursing her life was saved.
I saw once in Paris a man carrying about a splendid large mouse-colored cat, dressed up with ribbons.
The creature was twice the common size, and gentle as a lamb. He wasfor sale; the price, sixty francs, which is twelve dollars. Everybody who was not too busy, stopped to stroke Master Puss.”
“He would have done to wear boots,” cried Harry. “I should like himright well. Such a big cat would be worth having.”
“The French are very humane to animals, and never inflictunnecessary pain upon the meanest. In the street in which I lived inParis, there was a hospital for cats and dogs.”
“Is not a hospital a place where sick folks go to be cured, Mother;and do they like to have dogs and cats there?”
“This was a hospital devoted to sick cats and dogs.”
“Do they have cats and dogs for nurses?” said Harry, giggling as hespoke.
“I never heard they did, you little goose. But I could not helpbeing pleased with such an evidence of the kind-heartedness of apeople in their treatment of animals.”
“Mother,” said Frank, “where did dogs and cats come from? Have menalways had them living with them? Did Adam and Eve have a dog andcat, do you suppose? Was there an Adam and Eve cat and dog?”
“It would take more knowledge than I can boast of, Frank, to answerthese questions. I will tell you all I have been able to learn. Itis supposed by some persons that the domestic dog is the descendant,that is, the great great great grandchild of a wolf.”
A man who wanted to see if a wolf could be gentle, and faithful, andloving as a dog, took a baby wolf, treated him with the greatestkindness, and fed him on food that would not make him savage.
The wolf was always gentle, and much attached to his master. If thesons and sons’ sons of the wolf were always treated in the samemanner, you may suppose it possible that, in time, they would be asloving and good as our dogs.
There seems, however, to be more reason to think that our domesticdog is descended from a wild dog; as there are wild dogs in variousparts of the world; in Africa, Australia, and in India. The dog ofthe Esquimaux was a wolf. There is a distinct kind of dog for almostevery part of the world, each sort differing in some things from thewolf.
The earliest history of man speaks of his faithful companion, thedog. Every schoolboy has read of the dog of Ulysses; and how, whenUlysses returned, after a very long absence, so changed as not to berecognized in his own house, his dog knew him immediately.
