[XV.]
ILLUSTRATIVE STORIES.
Another story, told by Dr. Wood, is proof of the falsity of the constantly repeated assertion by many naturalists that the Cat is a lover of locality and not of persons, and although it seems almost a matter of superfluity to relate it, I will narrate it in order to fix the truth beyond contradiction, in the minds of doubters of the real fact.
"Many years ago we changed our residence from one part of Oxford to another, and, having been told that Cats have no affection except for localities, my parents thought that they would not distress their Cat by taking her into a house which she would not like, and, accordingly, left 'Nutty' at home. But, after we had been settled down some eight or ten days, Nutty made her appearance among us and displayed by every means in her power her delight at rejoining her old friends. She was terribly emaciated, and had evidently endured great hardships, but in a few days her rich tortoise-shell fur had sleeked itself down and she had recovered her wonted beauty."
I take the following from "Gleanings in Natural History," by Edward Jesse, F.L.S., London, 1838. It demonstrates the love of the feline for persons and the society of human beings and her innate desire to protect both her master and his property, characteristics which have heretofore been attributed alone to the dog and denied existence in the feline animal. Of the latter trait there are thousands of instances which have come under the observation of many people, and have been recited in the numerous volumes which I have consulted in preparing this paper. The story of this old writer is as follows:
"Cats are generally persecuted animals, and are supposed to show but little attachment to those who are kind to them. I have known a Cat, however, to evince great uneasiness during the absence of her owner, and it is stated that when the Duke of Norfolk was committed to the Tower, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a favorite Cat made her way into his prison room by getting down the chimney.
"Cats have been known, also, to do their best to protect the property of their masters as well as dogs. A man who was sentenced to transportation for robbery informed me, after his conviction, that he and two others broke into the house of a gentleman near Hampton Court. While they were in the act of plundering it a large black Cat flew at one of the robbers and fixed her claws on each side of his face. He added that he never saw any man so much frightened in his life.
"Mr. White, in his 'Natural History of Selborne,' states that of all quadrupeds Cats are the least disposed toward water, and will not, when they can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element. The following fact, however, communicated to me by a friend who lived several years in Jamaica, will prove that, in cases of necessity, they take to water, and is also another instance of the attachment of animals to the places where they are bred. Being in want of a Cat, one was given him which was not full grown. It was put into a canvas bag, and a man on horseback brought him a distance of five miles from the place where it was bred. It had never been removed before. In doing so, he had to cross two rivers, one named the Mino, which is about eighty feet wide and two and a half feet deep, and running strong. The other, called Thomas's River, was wider and more rapid, but less deep. Over these rivers there were no bridges. The Cat, when it arrived, was shut up for some days, and when supposed to be reconciled to her new dwelling she was allowed to go about the house. The next day, however, she was missing, and was found, shortly afterward, at her old abode.
"We had one cunning old black Cat," says a correspondent of Dr. Wood, "whose wisdom was acquired by sad experience. In early youth he must have been very careless, for at that time he was always getting in the way of the men and the wine cases, and frequent were the disasters he suffered from coming into collision with moving bodies. His ribs had been often fractured, and when nature repaired them he must have handed them over to the care of her 'prentice hand, for the work was done in a rough and knotty manner.