INTELLIGENCE IN CATS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4292, 30 April 1885, Page 4

INTELLIGENCE IN CATS.

Cats are like oysters, in that no one is neutral about them ; everyone is, explicitly Or implicit}', friendly or hostile to thorn. And they arc like children in thuir power of discovering, hy a rapid and .sure instinct, tvho likes them and who docs not. It is difficult to win their affection ; and it is easy to forfeit what it is hard to win. Put ■when given, their love, although less demonstrative, it i.s more dclir-ate and beautiful than that of a dog. Who that is on really intimate terms with a cat has not watched its dismay at the signs of packing-up and leaving homo ? We ourselves have known a, cat "who would recognise his master's footsteps after a three months' absence, and come out to meet him in the hall, with tai I erect and purring all over as if to the very verge of bursting. And another cat we know, who comesup every moruingbetuoensixandseven o'clock to wake his master, sits on the bed, andvery gently feels first one eyelid and then

the other with his paw. When an eye opens, but not till then, the cat sets up a loud purr, like the prayer of a fire worshipper, to the rising sun. Those who say lightly that cats care only for places, and not for persons, should go to the Cat Show at the Crystal Palace, where they may see recognitions between cat and owner that will cure them of so shallow an opinion. When we were last there, one striking instance fell in our way. Cats greatly dislike these exhibitions ; a cat, as a rule, is like Queen Vashti, unwilling to be shown, even to the nobles, at the pleasure of an Ahasuerus. Shy, sensitive, wayward, and independent, a cat resents being placed upon a cushion in a wire cage, and exposed to the unintelligent criticism, to say nothing of the fingers, of a mob of sightseers. One very eminent cat belonging to the Masters' Common Room at Christ Church Oxford, whose size and beauty have on several occasions entailed on him the hard necessity of attending a cat show, takes, it is said, three days to recover from the sense of humilation and disgust which he feels, whether he gets a prize or not. On the occasion to which we refer, a row of distinguished cats were sitting each on his cushion, with their backs turned to the sightseers, while th eir faces when from time "to time visible, were expressive of the deepest gloom and disgust. Presently two little girls pushed through the crowd to the cage of one of tho largest of these cats, crying "There's ' Dick !" Instantly the great cat turned round, his face transfigured with joy, purred loudly and endeavored to scratch open the front of the cage, that he mijrht rejoin his little friends who were with difficulty persuaded to leave him at the Show. —Spectator.