American citizen., 1875-03-27
A Generous Cat.

URGED by a feeling of gratitude my
own cat, "Pret," used invariably to give
his mice to me.
He used to kill the animal in most
curious manner, .. e.: by taking it, while
quite unhurt, by the tip of the tail, carry
ing it to the top of the house and drop
ping it down the well of the staircase.
After repeating the process a few times
he would bring the mouse to me and
while stroked and praised him would
keep rubbing himself against me and
| purring his content. He then took the
| mouse again, played with it for while,
and then brought it back to me. If the
study door were closed and he could not
gain admittance he always left the
mouse on the mat, previously having
bitten off the animals head. He had a
strange fancy also for putting the mice
into my bed; and once, on leaving my
room in the early morning, found no less
than nine mice laid in a row just outside
the door. Afterward when we moved
into the country and he took to catching
rats instead of mice he acted in precise
ly the same manner, sometimes bringing
me three or four rats in single day.
Now in both these cases the motive
was one that would show credit to hu-
manity There is nothing that cats like
SO well as mouse, and yet, just because
they thought mice the most precious OBJ
ject in the world, the cats gave their mice
to those whom they loved. Affection,
self-denial, generosity and gratitude
were thus eXemplified, all being qualities
which Of necessity belong to the spiritual
and not to the animal nature.
Pret was also remarkable for generos-
ity toward his own kind. An example
of this trait of character is given in my
:" Gimpses into Petland," published by
Messrs. Bell ~ Daddy. The animal
was then living in London:
"When he was Il few months old he
began to scrape acquaintance with other
cats, and used to meet them in back
yard, which, by common consent both of
cats and householders, seemed to be the
feline clubhouse of the neighborhood.
Now it was very well of Pret to be social
in his habits, but when he took to hos
pitality the question became serious.
1T is true that he never allowed
strange cats, no matter how big they
might be, to enter the house; but then
he was fond of entertaining his friends
in the yard, and was in the habit of
bringing his dinner to the club for the
benefit of his acquaintances, and then
wanting dinner on his own account in
the evening. He even went SO far as to
be diSguSted with the meals furnished
to a neighboring cat, thinking that cats
meat was not fit for feline consumption.
Acting on this supposition he was seen
to take away the eats meat as soon as it
was bought by the itinerant purveyor,
to carry it into the cellar, bury it under
a heap of small coal and to take his
own dinner upstairs for his friend.
Even these proceedings might have
been pardoned; but Pret'S generosity
developed so rapidly that we should have
been obliged 10 devise some eftectual
check had not Il removal to another
house put an end to the acquaintance.
Finding that his own Iaeals were not
sufficient to entertain his friends in the
liberal manner in which he thought him
self bound to act, he took to ransacking
the larder, in'o which chamber he con-
trived to gain admission in spite OF many
precautions In vain did we keep the
doors shut and the windows fastened, so
as to exclude any animal larger than II
mouse, for Pret always managed 10 en-
ter the forbi Iden precincts whenever he
chose. At last we found out that he
achieved the feat by hiding under the
servants dress, and stealthily creeping
in when she had occasion to visit the
harder.
"On one occasion | heard an odd sort
of a humping sound on the stairs, as of
some one who was dragging up Il burden
which could with difficulty be lifted. On
going to investigate the source OF the un-
wonted sounds, | found that they were
caused by Pret, who had made a raid on
the larder lie had contrived TO drag
out of the dish, and halfway upstairs,
the entire bone of Il leg of mutton, rest
ing on each stair in order to get his
breath, and then hauling the bone up
the succeeding stair. The ant pulling
stick over rough ground presents an eN-
act IT semblance to Prct dragging the
heavy bone upstairs"
1t must be remembered that this labor
was not undertaken for his own selfish
purposes He had not the least idea OF
eating the meat which he was carrying
off, but intended 70 give it all to his
riends-Hdrper's Weekly.