CAT STORIES

Evening Star, Issue 20586, 11 September 1930, Page 2

CAT STORIES

+■'- T-,;:-GLIMPSES Of THE FELINE MIND There Is an old saying that cats are not faithful to their owners, but to the place where they live. Experiences of readers disprove that idea (states the ‘Sunday Dispatch’), which publishes a number of cat stories from real life, supplied by readers. Many- are the stories told of cats who have travelled long distances to find their masters, of cats whose intelligence has saved the lives of members of the family, or who have died of a broken heart at the loss of some loved one. Greatest proof of all that cats have an affinity for human beings rather than places, however, is the confirmation of the fact, contained in Mr Falk’s article, that many people have a hypnotic or magnetic influence over cats, which flock to them wherever they may go. No reason for this magnetism can be found in the_ experiences of_ readers, and it is curious that certain people who attract cats dislike them. A GALLANT GENTLEMAN. Spike was the model par excellence of feline inscrutability. He would sit for hours motionless, his green eyes fixed unblinkingly upon space, looking like a figure carved from ebony. Even when our two-year-old daughter petted him he ■ would make no response. I was always afraid that some day he might attack and injure baby. One afternoon I was sitting reading in the garden ’ and baby was playing about. Suddenly I' heard a scream. Baby was on the floor, and standing over her with bared fangs stood a savage Alsatian wolfhound. Horrorstricken, I rushed, forward, but Spike arrived there first—a black fury. With one tremendous spring he leaped right upon the Alsatian’s neck. Snarling and fighting, they rolled over and over, locked in mortal combat. Spike saved baby, but paid for , his valour with his life. TRAGIC THREE. We had two pets, a cat and a jackdaw. These two and my three-year-old brother were inseparable playmates. The cat would allow my

brother to lead it about with the jack* daw riding on its back.'' ' , .j i The companionship, which lasted for a year, ended in a tragedy. The jackdaw died. Three weeks later my brother was killed in an accident, the cat, . missing its playmates, m< .:’fd pitifully about the house, refused it)» food, and would only rest on the piiiow on my brother’s bed; no one could move it." This lasted for three weeks* and then It died. : BATHROOM PEAT. \[ Several times members of the ily have run water into the bath and have left the. hath foopi tofetch something or other—to find, on their return, the water had run away. We thought at first that the ping had not been fixed securely. ’ But one day the culprit, our teii- - year-old cat, was seen going into tfije ' bathroom. The bath was full of watet, so we tiptoed to the door and saw hup jump on the edge of the bath, put his paw round the chain, and lift up thO plug. He sat with his bead on one side, watching the water run away. When the bath was empty he jumped down and ran away. PIED PIPER WANTED. fe Although I resolutely refuse to k«4p one, lam never, free from cats. They, climb up my skirts when I ignore them,; and insist upon showering affection upon me. If I attempt any gardening every “Hester” and “Thomas” m the neighbourhood appears. While I am they industriously scratch out my plants. When I am watering the border they climb a tree and take flying leaps from its branches on to my shoulder. O for a Pied Piper of cats! SUPER-FAITHFULNESS. I had a cat when young. It would allow nobody to touch it but myself. It slept with me.. ’ Mother objected and entered my bedroom every night, asking if puss was there. Whenever mother’s steps approached puss jumped out and hid in the chimney till she bad gone. I went to college and puss disap-i peared. On the day of my return after six months, there she was to welcome me. Where she went in the interval nobody knew. This went on for foiic years. She died in my arms at sixteen. --''SENTRIES/" We have a very large collie dog who seems to exercise the same charm over cats as Mr Falk’s; friend. Our owp house cats, semi-wild cats who live m the farm buildings, and strange cass on the roods,-walk up'to Billie as soda as he appears, and purr their loudest, These attentions seem to bore him. | i Now he is very old and restless, ana walks up and down the room 'for an hour at a time. The moment he start* walking brio young cat falls iiito step beside him. - • BY REQUEST: We were sitting on the lawp. with our Persian cat, Frillums, beside uS. My mother said she had never serin Frillums’s kittens. Instantly the cat padded 6ff arid returned with a kittrih in her mouth. She fetched .all four and laid them on the' grass at my mother’s feet. She had fetched the kittens from W cellar 100yds from us. . -j, CUTE POACHER. ; In order to catch trout from a pool, I used to suspend a line froth a branch of a tree. Several times I found the bait gone, but no fish. One day I spied my cat go up the tree, draw up the line, and unhook a nice trout, then descend the branches and eat the trout! I observed thj» several times.