The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-12-19
A SAVAGE PET.
What He Was. Where | Found Him,
and How He Died
by DIR. J. II. PORTER.

| It happened not so very long ago that as the
bereRved author of this tribute to departed
worth sat ono sultry morning at ease in the
| ancient town Of Acaponeta, near to the West
ern Coast of Mexico, there entered his apart
ment an Indian who having deposited a small
ball of black and gray fur upon the floor, said
certain words, which being rendered into the
| English language, were to the effect that
assisted by some friends and number of Saints,
| he had slain the mother Of the young puma
which he had brought. Upon which, his mind
| having been enlightened from above, he had
| brought it to the Senior Doctor in token of es-
TEEN, and likewise in the hope of receiving
| four silver dollars.
| According 10 the price current of mezcal at
| that time and place, this sum could have
kept the aborigine drunk for about three weeks
Whether it did so or not the deponent cannot
say; but the big savage departed leaving the
| little one behind.
The writer bears in affectionate RENE "a brance
the many endearing qualities of the kitten who
was thus brought down from its home in the
| Golden Mountains and committed TO his charge
In the earlier days of his captivity the young
| puma was duly sprinkled with red wine and
named Cato, or Cat, ceremony which he deeply
resented. During the calow period of infancy
there was little to distinguish Cato from a
wcll-grown cat, such as one may often see, other
| than the curious combination Of spots and
| stripes upon his coat, greater sturdness in
| appearance, an appetite the like of which no
civilized feline ever possessed, great disin-
clination to eat in public, much Indifference
| toward the advances Of strangers, however we'll
meant or affable they might be, and free, wild
| manner of conducting himself that was redo
lent of the wastes of nature and full of an unms-
takableair ofsavageTy. Then aud always he was
far too much of y gentleman not to scorn pre-
tense or the affectation of being other than he
was, and it was for this reason that although
under the influence of fostering care and pa
| ternal discipline he grew in grace continually
he never was fitted to adorn general society
Irrepressible hereditary tendencies toward de-
struction and murder marked his demeanor at
all times. Thus he began to stalk his master
in an amiable way almost from the commence
ment, and never wholly left Off pretending to
make prey Of him, while with other people
there was little pretense about it. A less phil
anthrOpic being it would have been impossible
TO find. He had something against every man
even the servant who fed him, and whom he
looked down upon and kept in subsection. With
his one intimate associate he was sometimes
playful, always peaceabIe, but never affection
ate. When he came forth at night after the
house was closed to assist at scientific investi-
cations, 1t was his custom at varying periods
subsequent to liberation, to seat himself upon
rug and have mis- head scratched while he
biinked at the light and purred in a fine bass
voice. Being let out on these occasions from
the goOd-sized room he occupied, and in which
he apparently took but little exercise he was
accustomed, before devoting himself to abstract
CONCENTRATIONS, to work off the supply of super
abundant nervous energy by violent and diversi-
fed gymnastiC performances mostly rehearsals
of imaginary incidents in the way OF assassina-
ton. He affected to believe that the shadows
were all alive and bounced upon them; also
that prey was concealed behind the curtains.
and the variety of ways in which he got the
better OF stone statue of one of the Apostles,
and the infinite pains he took 10 surprise and
kill this Evangelist cannot be told. Gradually
however, these playful ways were given over,
for gravity soon comes upon the cat mammalia.
His play ceased, his silent watchfulness in
creased, and indefiuably with daily growth he
drew away from civilized surroundings and
lapsed toward his natural state. Then, in those
nightly interviews which have been spoken of.
he would lie upon the floor and think as men
do not think, feeling the while as they cannot
feel, and reacting to external impressions which
evade our duler organs. Soands and odo-s
beyond che appreciation of human senses quick
ened his brain into activity. and It's creations
took the forms which the tendencies of a thou
sand generations OF savage ancestry had handed
down. Under the influence of ideas partly ini-
tiated centrically, and in part the pictures of
personal experience and present suggestions, the
beautiful fierce creatures eye would dilate, the
powerful muscles culver and contract, and for
the moment mans might was forgotten and the
captive was free.
1t may be said at once that, despite the many
virtues which embellished his character, all that
instruction and association had done. or could
do, was upon the surface. At no time. from
infancy to maturity, was Cato. the predacious
and the untamabie, anything else than wild
beast pure aud simple. He liked 10 have his
head scratched aud BIO fOrebOre from doing
murder upon his master, or his masters friends
when he was present; but solely, so far as could
be determined, out OF regard for the conse-
quences of aggression which experience had
taught him TO expect. Having at different
times demolished dogs his animosty toward
these animals was great, and once catching an
unwary aud intrusive chicken, which he tore
TO pieces Instantly, peculiar Partially for
the destruction Of fowls ever after possessed
him. This was great comfort in that cock
fighting country, where game chickens are
picketed everywhere, and their growing is per-
petuai; because, when these had accumulated
about the establishment until endurance ceased
10 be virtue. il was only necessary to clear the
premises aud free the puma. whereupon exter-
mination ensued with singular rapidity
Having at various times written something
against the absurdity of judging brutes by hu-
man standards, and of attribnting to them the
feelings and motives of men. the writer is not
likely 10 fall into this mistake himself; vet in
the present state of knowledge, if animals are
not considered relatively TO men, so far as their
mental processes go, they cannot be compared
with anything, because the psychology of all
inferior beings is almost completely unknown
1t is therefore impossible to give anything but
the facts in this case, and these all point to the
powerlessness of education upon the character
of such creature. Suppressed it may be un-
d0ubtedly, but made over again by little man
ipulatiOn not at all. This great cat was not TO
be trusted for moment when his fears did not
forbid the exercise of transmitted tendencies
The manner in which he departed this life
strikingly corroborates the statement. It must
be remembered that he had never come into
actual conflict with man; that his natural
procivities may have been supposed to be
blunted by disuse, and that upon all occa-
sions in which he had in any way opposed him
self TO human power, experience showed that
his designs were forestalled and his aggressive
propensities punished. Still, one afternoon
getting loose through the carelessness of serv-
ant, he ensconced himself among the boughs
of a gigantic tamaTiud tree that grew in the |
cshrtyard of the house where he lived and
which, like all residences of any size in those
lands, was built in the form of a hollow square,
and thence leaped upon the Group of horse
man who rode through the gates that there
answer the place of our 'front.' doors. Both |
man and horse were wounded in this assault !
but the former dsengaged himself, and taking !
refuge in one of the Outbuildngs, fired at the |
puma through window, the earbine-ball shat I
tering the shoulder joint and passing backward /
into tho body. The incident was a painful one |
and suffice it TO say his sufferings were short |
ened nv the hand of Affection and that fba /