CATS AND CIVILIZATION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sie,—Having always enjoyed your quaint and instructive articles on the animal creation, it was with great astonishment that I read your paper in last week's Spectator on "Cats and Civilization." On the subject of dogs, I bow to year superior knowledge ; on that of cats, permit me to say that you are still in the bonds of dark- ness. Two-thirds (at least) of the actions which you say that cats never perform have been performed by the cats of our own house- hold, and are of quite common occurrence in many families. Allow me, in defence of a much calumniated race, to enter into a few details. To take personal qualities first, —you say that cats are not proud of catching birds, and seek no praise for such feats. I could not have thought it possible for any friend of the brute creation to suppose this, the facts to the contrary are so abundant. Our cats are so vain-glorious of their bird-catching that they carry the birds about the house, even to the top story, to claim admiration; and I have beard of cats who having caught and eaten mice in the night, exhibited the head or tail of the prey next morning as a trophy. Then, as to the feline intellect ; you say the cat never dreams. This is quite a mistake. 1 have often watched cats, while sleeping profoundly, wag their tails, start, and make noises, showing unmistakably that they were mentally occupied. They have also been seen to move their mouths in sleep, as if eating. Coming to social qualities, you make the harshest charge of all,—that "cats make no attempt to take part in human affairs,"—are not disturbed by suspicions intruders, yet glide away from ordinary strangers ; in fact, you attribute no social qualities to cats, except an "entirely torpid pleasure" in protection and patronage. Far otherwise is our experience. Our reigning favourite, a handsome tiger-striped creature named Sandy, is a most social cat, always sensitive to the arrival of strangers. If their business is of a disturbing sort, that upsets the quiet of the kitchen, he soon absents himself ; but if they are parlour visitors,
and of a friendly disposition, he usually finds his way to them, seeking sympathy and admiration like a petted child. Especially he affects men, and likes to rub himself against their legs. For instance : one day when a gentleman had called, Sandy came
to the drawing-room door and gave a great thump thereupon, but on its being opened, was too shy to enter at once. Soon creeping in, however, he began rubbing against the visitor, and then rolling himself over on the rug to excite admiration, which I am sorry to say he did not receive, the visitor being engaged in highly transcendental discourse, and thereby blinded to the graceful manceuvres which were being displayed for his amusement. But when duly appre- ciated, Sandy makes himself perfectly at home with strangers, nestling on their knees or sitting on ladies' silk dresses, which he particularly enjoys. He will even go out for human company, walking along the balconies, and entering strange drawing-rooms. Of children, especially babies, he is jealous, as of rival pets, and usually avoids them ; but this, although an unamiable trait, is still illustrative of his sensitiveness to human sympathy. (His socia- bility towards his own race was once shown in a curious way. Feeling lonely after the death of our other cat, he stole an infant kitten from a neighbour's house, and brought it home for a play- mate, and he was sadly troubled when it was taken from him.) Nor is such sensitiveness at all uncommon. I have often been accosted in friends' houses, and in my walks, by strange cats who have arched themselves up to be caressed, and have cultivated my acquaintance with engaging confidingness.
You seem to be utterly unaware of the intense curiosity of cats, a feature which I thought was universally recognized. A kitten only just able to walk will, if taken to a new room, explore it all round ; and the interest taken by cats in every new arrangement of furniture, or any new article that is brought into the house, is notorious. Our Sandy is very fond of flowers, and when I have arranged any large or brilliant bouquet he is pretty sure to inspect it closely. Last year, when we were putting up Christmas decorations, he became so excited, and leaped on forbidden places so obtrusively, that we had to banish him. But still more marked is the interest which he takes in all that concerns his mistress. Even when sleeping before the fire, he will rouse at her knock, and run to the street door to meet her, though he will not stir for other arrivals. He has learned, too, that the packing of trunks is an antecedent to some one's departure, and when his mistress is on the eve of a journey, he haunts her and her boxes in a melancholy fashion. Once, when a visitor had been packing, Sandy, after hovering restlessly about the trunk, was shut up for the night. Hearing the sounds of depar- ture next morning, he cried piteously to be let out, then rushed to the street door, found the box gone, smelt about, and immedi- ately flew to his mistress's room ; but finding that she was not gone, he overwhelmed her with manifestations of unusual affection, and then subsided into blissful repose. And yet an unfeeling critic can deny that cats take any interest in human affairs !
I think I could easily disprove your astonishing theory that the cat "never encroaches," and "never competes ;" but the exigen- cies of your space warn me to close. That the cat stands lower in the scale of intelligent creation than the dog, is unquestionable ; yet it is no blame to cats if they do not perform the special func- tions of dogs in guarding the property and persons of their owners. (Even to this rule there may be exceptions, if the story in a recent newspaper be true, of a pet cat who, when its mistress was being beaten by her husband, flew at the man's face, and tore it till he cried to his wife for mercy.) And to ignore so many of their fine qualities, and accompany the denial thereof with a running panegyric on the superiority of their domestic rivals, who are not as these Grimalkins,—is so strange a proceeding in a truly brute-loving critic, that I can only ac- count for it by this conjecture. It must be the presence of pet dogs, and not that of mankind, which has subdued the vitality of the cats from whom you have formed your impressions of the race. As a gentle sister in the presence of a clever and admired brother shrinks from putting forth half the life and sense which she really possesses, and is thus held by all to be wholly his inferior, so the greater activity and demonstrativeness of a few favourite dogs may easily overshadow the more feminine nature of the cats in the same household. But when they have a fair field in which to develop, the companionship of man will, I believe, be found really to add to their knowledge, to sharpen their intellects, and to unfold their affections "man-ward," to a degree which entitles them to an honourable place in human regard.—I am, Sir, &c.,
S. D. C.
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