The castration of cats is sometimes practised to keep them from roving, or to increase their size. For this purpose nothing more is requisite than to make a slight opening on each side the scrotum, to slip out the two testicles, and draw them away with the fingers. The rupture alone of the spermatic chord prevents hæmorrhage in them, and no future inconvenience is felt. It is often found difficult to secure a cat for this operation; but it may be easily managed in two ways:—one by putting the head and fore-quarters of the animal into a boot; the other by rolling his whole body lengthways in several yards of towelling; but the former is the most secure and simple, for no animal is more intractable, as a surgical patient, than grimalkin: though to administer medicines to a pig beats the cat hollow, as an obstreperous operation.—Blaine—Nimrod—Percivall.
Castration, s. The act of gelding.
Casteril, or Castrel, s. A mean or degenerate kind of hawk.
Cat, s. A domestic animal that catches mice.
The cat is a faithless domestic; though gentle and frolicsome when young, they even then possess an innate cunning, and perverse disposition, which age increases, and education only serves to conceal.
The form and temperament of the cat’s body perfectly correspond with his disposition; he is handsome, light, adroit, cleanly, and voluptuous; he loves ease, and searches out the softest places for rest and repose. The cat is very amorous. The passion of the female continues nine or ten days, and commonly happens only twice a year, in the spring and autumn, but sometimes three and even four times. They go with young 55 or 56 days, and they usually have from four to six at a litter. As the males are apt to devour their progeny, the females commonly conceal themselves when they litter, and if suspicious of a discovery, they carry their young ones away in their mouths and hide them in holes or inaccessible places. After suckling them a few weeks, the old one takes them mice or small birds, to accustom them to eat flesh; but by an unaccountable caprice, these very mothers so tender and careful, become sometimes so cruel and unnatural, as to devour their offspring themselves.
Cats are without docility, and their scent, which, in the dog is so eminent a quality, is very indifferent, and therefore they hunt by the eye only; neither do they properly pursue, but rather lie in wait and attack the animals by surprise; and after having played with, and tormented them a long time, they kill them without any necessity, even when well fed, and in no want of prey to satisfy their appetites.
The most immediate physical cause of their inclination to seize other animals by surprise, comes from the advantage they receive from the particular formation of their eyes. The pupil in man, and many other animals, is capable of a certain degree of contraction and dilation; it enlarges a little when the light is faint, and contracts when it becomes too strong; in cats and nocturnal birds, as owls, &c., this contraction and dilation is so considerable that the pupil, which in the dark is large and round, becomes in the day long and narrow like a line; and therefore these animals see better in the night than in the day. There is a perpetual contraction in the eye of the cat during the day, and it is only by a great effort that he can see in a strong light, whereas, in the twilight, the pupil resumes its natural form; he sees perfectly, and profits from this superiority to know, attack, and surprise his prey.
Cats have less attachment to persons than to houses. When taken to the distance of a league or two they will return to their former abode of their own accord. They fear water, cold, and bad smells; they love to be in the sun, and to lie in warm places; they are very fond of perfumes, and willingly allow themselves to be taken and caressed by those who make use of them. They do not come to their full growth in less than fifteen or eighteen months, but they are capable of engendering before the end of the first year, and they can procreate all their lives, which seldom exceeds eight or nine years; they are notwithstanding, very lively and hardy, and more nervous than most other animals which live longer.
The wild cat couples with the domestic one, and they consequently form but one species. It is not uncommon for both males and females to quit their houses, when they are proud to go into the woods to seek wild cats, and afterwards return to their former habitations; it is for this reason that some of our domestic cats so entirely resemble the wild ones. The greatest difference between them is internally, the intestines of the domestic cat being longer than those of the wild cat, although the latter is much the largest and strongest; his lips are also always black, his ears more stiff, his tail larger, and his colour more uniform.