The morning call., 1890-09-01
A CATALOGUES OF CATS.

The hospital for homeless cats which ben
evolent ladies in New York are establish
ing is not a new idea. Similar institutions
have been founded in many large cities. A
prominent lady of society in London not
long ago withdrew from the world, and de-
voted her house and her means-whch were
large-to the care of stray cats. In Cairo,
in Egypt, where two or three thousand years
ago cats we're worshipptd as minor divin-
tiles, there is fine building, supported by
the Government, where homeless cats are
lodged and fed. Our New York friends are
treading in path which has been smoothed
by many footsteps.
The reason why so many more cats than
dogs are homeless is probably because the
former are less apt to make friends than the
latter. A young dog will attach himself to
any one who feeds or earesses him; the kit
ten seems destitute of affections. Cats are
said to grow fond of their home, but they
rarely care for the persons who surround
them. There is no instance on record of
cat giving battle for its owner, while dogs
will fight to the death for their masters
The most domesticated cat remains a
wild creature. In books of natural history
the tame cat is said to be a different species
from the wild cat. or fetiS cdtuS; but this as
SertiOn is probably erroneous. In the old
mining days Of this State party Of miners
took with them, on prospecting tour in the
mountains, pair of cats. One day. when
the miners went on a tramp, the animals
were left in the cabin without food. They
escaped and were lost. Two or three years
afterward the same miners found in the
woods breed of wildcats, marked as their
old pets had been, but much larger, with
thick bushy tails and ferOCiOus habits.
These were thought to be the progeny of
the tame pair. The changes in their ap-
pparance, it was urged, were caused by the
alteration in the conditions of their life.
Parts of San Francisco are infested with
cats which breed under stables and houses,
live no one knows how, and seem to spend
their days in sleep and their nights in cater
wauling. 1t is diffic ut to get rid of them,
their agility enables them 10 elude pursuit,
and to poison them is to insure their dying
under the drawing-room floor, whence a
perfume arises TO give warning that cata-
comb has Deen established. When they are
admitted to the house their imperfect d.
gestion renders them subject to catalepsy,
and in their blind flights statuettes and
chimney ornaments are apt to suffer. Old
maids who keep pet cats treat them with
catnip, cruel boys assail them with cataracts
of stones, but the nine lives to which cat
is entitled constitute a categorical defense
against cataleptic catastr ophes.
The most curious eat in the world is found
in the Isle Of Man, and thereby hangs a tale
of tails. 1t seems that long, long ago the
ManX boys used to torment the cats by pull
ing aud twisting their tails, whereupon a cat
congress met and decided that the mos prac-
teal way of stopping the prosecution would
be to sacrifice the member which suffered at
the boys hands. and all the cats in the island
forthwith cut off their tails. The Darwinian
law then took effect, the progeny of the ia H.
less cats were born without tails, and so it
came about that alone of all the'races of cats
in the world the Manx cat, like man, has no
caudal appeudage.