CATS I HAVE KNOWN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19695, 23 January 1926, Page 19

CATS I HAVE KNOWN.

Their name is legion, from the self-con-tained tiger-striped giant, ■whose favourite place was the remote attitude of a toll I.h_k'ikcase, whence ho gazed Jong and sorrowfully into space, apparently composing an essa-v on “Row wo arc misunderstood, to the scrap of orange-eyed mole fur that, played at being an express train to and iro the' ha.il, up and down every curtain and hanging in the establishment; sociable cats, austere tats, expert mousors, ornamental idlers with floating tresses, cats alt sleek full-fed content, starving, miserable semi-skeletons in mangy coats abandoned hv their owners —the long procession winds miaouing through my memory, a study in contrasts both as to the dispositions of members of the feline race and the treatment accorded by the human. It is a. mark of intellectual superiority to care for cats and their companionship, and t!\ev unveil their intelligence in properl ion to the intelligence with which they are treated. For ail time (hero sits on the ton of the library ladder at Abbotsford Sir Walter’s huge cat, Hinse of Hinsefeldt. listening with a critical air to his master’s reading aloud ; for all tune sonsy Bandrons smootlis her face in the pages of our national hard. Across the vast gulf of centuries puss, harmless, nccessary, purrs from f-liekespeare’s comedy to •he stately, kindly, lordly friend of Swinburne’s matchless' verses, and claims kinship with Walter Ferries Pollock’s delicious Dabadoo. She bites Madame Gautier for scolding the gifted son. whose love of cats dates" from "that hour. She _ brings food to Sir .Henry Wyat, prisoner in London Tower, and saves him from starvation. She falls asleep on the sleeve of Mahomet; s gown, and he cuts it off rather than disturb her slumbers. She is a familiar figure in the council chamber of Richelieu, patriot and statesman. For the finishing touch of homeliness or decoration in a room or kitchen, there is nothing to surpass a cat, whether curled in tinned-tongue shape, or drawing a line of graceful ease along a fire-warmed rug. And a cat may purr and purr, and still not be a traitor. “Cats are treacherous things’’ has been said so often that wo don’t question its accuracy or jnstk.au Have they the monopoly of treachery I Surely it Ls a betrayal of trust when we leave a household net to fetid for itse.f, to starve or die, whilst wo enjoy a happy holiday at coast or country. .And when Baudrons is mauled by a mischcyious child, and asserts the right of self-defence with a scratch, the child is soothed and caressed, whilst pussy is smacked, and called a treacherous boast. Thus are reputations made. In devotion of her offspring puss sets an example to many a human parent. Here is an example of her maternal, courage. When Lusbv’s music hail was burned down in London! in 1884, the manager’s cat three times made her way through smoke end fire to her kittens, and rescued one each time ; her fourth attempt proved fatal. Could man or woman have done more?