River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-06-11
CURIOUS PETS.
From Ferocious Leopards Down
to the Cunning Coon.
A Wolf That Guarded the Poultry Yard
-Domesticated Coyotes, Foxes, Bears.
Raccoons. Cheetahs, and Every
Species of Monkey.

The Russian humorist Pushlxin tells
a pretty story about a widow who had
survived four husbands, and was going
to ratify the prellminaries of fifth al
lance with a Grim Tartar.
do you know that your admirer
carries six pistols and At bandits knife?"
inquired an anxious friend.
Yes, | have seen them" said the
woman, calmly, ''but, judging from ex-
perience, do not believe that there is
any such thing as an untamable
creature. "
Geological experts incline to similar
opinion. The most perfect embodiment
of reckless fury is trap-caught leopard
during his first weeks experience of
prison life. He viii rush to and fro
with a persistency worthy of better
success; his eyes glare defiance at every
visitor; every now and then he will at
tack the iron bars of his cage with alb
solute disregard of consequences, or roll
about the floor, biting his own paws in
his frenzy of despair. Yet in Hindu
stan, a near relative of that four-footed
demon, the cheetah, or hunting leopard,
has been so perfectly domesticated that
he can be trusted to run at large and
return from night expedition to share
the proceeds of his enterprise with his
trainer.
Wolves terrorized our pastoral fore
fathers in way that has made the
name of the CAMS lupus a synonym of
fierce hostility, yet that adversary of
stock-raising mankind is more than
probably the ancestor of the faithful
shepherd dog. On a stock farm near
Zacatecas, in northern Mexico, saw a
tame wolf that seemed to get along on
the best terms with his canine relatives,
and in the morning was always on
hand to greet his master with romps
and caresses, and if kicked away would
cringe in a manner suggesting the dep
recatOry maneuvers of a fawning span
iel He could not be trained to find his
way home from an extensive hunting
trip, but was often left to guard the
farm-yard poultry, and, to the best of
his owners knowledge, had never be-
trayed his trust.
The Aztec peasants of Herman COrtez'
time used to domesticate the coyote, or
jackal-like prairie wolf; and in the up
land districts of southern Poland tame
specimens of the common gray wolf
could be seen in almost every larger
village, till the frequency of hydropho-
bia panics induced the authorities to
discourage the popularity of the per
ilous pets, whose conduct, from a moral
point of view, seems to have been I'M
exceptionable.
Foxes, too, can be trained to restrain
their predatory instincts; and Ten
nessee neighbor of mine raised litter
of fox-whelps with his puppies, and in
duced them to stay about the house by
treating them to an occasional dish
of their favorite delicacy-fresh milk
sweetened with sorghum treacle. Young
bears can dispense with such premiums.
After few weeks petting they will
stick to a farmhouse with the tenacity
of loyalist officeholders, and never leave
the premises after dark. A half-grown
specimen on a Georgia highland farm
would now and then take stroll in
huclxleberry time and stray a few hun
bred yards beyond the clearing of his
protector, but any unusual noise, a
shout or the distant report OF firearms
was sufficient to send him back rae ng
to the shelter of the old homestead.
Like "a cat, he seemed indeed to con-
centrate his affection upon the dwell
ing-house, rather than on its propri-
etors, and could never be coaxed to fol
low the family more than half a mile
from headquarters, unless they con-
trive to counterfeit his inconsistencies
by liberal slices of pumpkin pie.
Bruins little cousin, the plantigrade
raccoon, is far more capable of person
al attachments. His propensity for
gadding is hard to control, but even out
in the woods he will emerge from his
hiding-place at the call of his master,
and trot home with him like a dutiful
dog. At the approach of stranger,
'coony" often bristles up with every
symptom of hostile intent, as if trying
to do his best in the way of seconding
the functions of the mastiff.
The pet monkeys of the East Indian
country tow ms manifest similar dis
position in an even more demOnstra-
tive fashion. Ten or twelve of them
will congregate on the roof of Hindu
farmhouse, waiting for lunch or util-
izing the palm-leaf thatch for rain
shelter but. on the whole, pay for
their board and lodging by making a
watchdog wholly superfluous At the
first glimpse of suspicious biped they
will give the alarm by a chorus OF
coughing banks, and often actually at
tack an intruder with all he pluck of
a resolute bull-terrier. Their personal
safety remains a secondary considera-
ton in emergencies of undoubted risk.
The proprietor of the Agra, Planter
hotel boasts the friendship of a tame
leopard that shares the comforts of his
hammock and trots after its master
for hours together; but one day exceed
ed its privilege by following him TO
the freight depot of the railway sta
ton. The shady platform at the north
end of that depot is favorito resort
for balloons and loafers; and while the
colonel was talking to the receiving
clerk his leopard strolled out u the
platform. where little street-Arab had
fallen asleep upon a pile of gunny-
bags. The moment ne approached that
pile a troop of rhesus-monkeys lcaped
from the roof, and instantly surround
ing the boy, faced the intruder with
bristling names and menacing growls,
evidently determined to defend their
little relative at the peril of their own
lives. The Hindus, indeed. reeiprocate
such demonstrations of goodwill Ac-
cording to the precepts of the popular
creed three, at least. of the twenty or
thirty different species of monkeys
have to be honored as the special IA
vorites of Brahma and enjoy all the
privileges of mendicant friars.
'sBhdrd Ghur!'' ("Mercy! Mercy") is
a frequent cry in the streets of Benares
when a European domestic PUSHES out
of a house in hot pursuit of long
tailed saint Mercy! Mercy, Sahib!
We win make restitution if it APP
pears that the sacred fOur-hander has
got away with something. Hold!
Spare him for the sake of Mahadeo,
For Saki-yam-Deva's sakeF and SO on,
till the long-legged marauder is safe
around the corner.
In ancient Egypt the dog-faced
baboon appears to have enjoyed SINH
lar generation, for reasons more I'M
movable than the rationale of croco-
die worship. The ugly saurians were