The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-07-30
A Defense of Cats.

IT has always been the custom to
abuse cats.
Cats are stigmatized as treacherous,
ungrateful, thievish, deceitful and so on
through the entire list of adjectives of
that class.
Their interesting little nocturnal con.
certs are condemned, and they are re.
warded for their vocal efforts by show.
ers of bricks, old boots, broken crockery,
and any and every other missile which
may be lying around loose.
We believe that cats are wronged
They are certainly not to blame for be.
ng in the world, though most people
reat them as if they were.
If there had been no cats, how many
rats and mice would a house be likely to
support /? Talk about rat-traps, indeed
There was never a rat-trap invented, and
never will be, which could begin to COM
pete with sober-minded, well-trained
industrious old tabby, who knows her
business and attends to it.
We have had an experience of years
with cats, and have owned scores of
them, and have never found them treach-
erous-or yet ungrateful for the favors
they have received.
We have always fed them regularly, as
we would any other useful animal; and
in consequence we have had no thieves
among our stock. Our cupboards and
pantries are unmolested, and our felincs,
having place where they are always
fed, 60 and sit there patiently when they
are hungry, and wait for the food which
they know shall be sure to come.
When we 60 about among our friends,
and notice the way in which their cats
are treated, we cease to wonder that cats
have fallen into such bad repute.
As general thing family gets cat
because there is child who wants one
to play with.
Of course, it is kitten; and, notwith-
standing the traditional nine lives, it has
plenty Of feeling in its tender little body
and can tell as well as you or I when It
is pinched and kicked. The baby car
ries it by the tail, or one leg, by the ear,
or the skin of its neck, and nobody goes
to its rescue because it is only q kitten.
Kittens have always been treated SO and
are used to it. They don't expect any
thing else.
The baby thinks it is most wonder
full plaything and he will amuse himself
with it by the hour. He will SINCE its
fur with matches, and pull out its whis-
kers, and put pepper in its eyes, and tie
strings around its neck and drag it along
after him; and by-and-by the wretched
little animal, goaded to desperation,
bites or scratches its graceless tormentor;
and then it is beaten and carried off to
the river and thrown in with stone tied
to its neck, and the whole family declare
they never want to set eyes on another
cat! Never! Dear little Johnnie, his
eyes were nearly scratched out of his
head-the poor darling!
Cats, for the most part, are kept half
starved, and it is no wonder they are
thieves. They but obey the dictates Of
their nature in seeking food when they
are hungry; and if it is to be obtained
in no other way they steal it, just as you
or would do under the same circum-
stances.
If you tease and torment q cat she
will growl at you just as anybody else
would do.
If you treat her kindly you will almost
invariably find her good-nstured.
Somebody says that nobody likes cats
but old maids! If this be true, then It
il only another proof that old maids are
quite Is sensible as their married sisters.
We do believe that there i something
IN the cid saw which asserts that . man
who II kind to the cat viii be kind to his
wife.
A few words in regard to the points Of