Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-11-28
A TR A N G E PET
A Naval officers Experience With I
Puma Cub.
HIS SAVAGE URE
Held In Subsection, Would Break Out occa-
sionalIy and Cause Some Alarn-G3oins for
Ducks and shsep-His rrrss Experience
With = Snow storm.
Written for The Evening Star.

YNHE q. 8. 8. ATLANTA WAS SWINGING
u to her anchor in York river and the first
watch at night hung heavily en- our hands,
when a senior lieutenant who had seen twenty
ysars service came on. on the quar- ter deck and
joined VI the conversation. The theme was
pets, and this gave him opp >rtunJty to tell
us pleasant story of a strange pet he had once
possessed. Tue lieutenant said: II was in the
month of November, 1879 and the Marion was
lying in the barbor of Sandy Point on The bleak
coast OF Patagonia. | was above prospecting
with one enlisted man. when two Of the natives
approached us and offered FOR sale two puma
cubs about three weeks old. They were kittens
about the size of large domestic cats with beau
tiful dark brown stripes Oil q lighter ground
Zone OF the coins largely used i'll trading with
the natives is large copper affair known as a
PUNK and worth about cents in American
| money. took a fancy to the little brutes and
conceived the idea of bringing them home and
presenting them to some menagerie. The ma
! tives prize the PUNK coins very highly. and
| polish them up for ornaments rings and
| the hke--so l had trouble in pun chasing
| the first one for plunks, or about 80 cents
When l tried to purchase the second one how
ever. struck an unexpected difficulty, for my
stock of piunhs was exhausted and when
| tried to purchase the cub for silver dollars
the natives refused TO sell him, ami il was only
| when l added plunks which the blue Jacket
with me had, that they parted with their big
| kitten.
! TAKEN on BOARD THE SHIP.
| "We put them in two gunny bags We had with
us, and carrying them at arms length 20 keep
them from scratching MS. for they were vicious
little bIutes. we took them on board. had
the carpenter make a cage with two compart-
ments and then began to train my pets into
| dociity. At first it was slow work. for they
were far from tractnble, and seemed possessed
OF an innate determination not to be tanned.
| tied them together with small rope several
| feet long and let them run at will but their
wills seemed decidedly contrary. for if one
wished to go one way that was sure sign for
the other one to take the opposite course
''Bnt little by little they became more gentle
| and learned to take milk from a large spoon
and not to bite and scratch any one that strOked
their siiken fur, and little by little jack and
| Fanny came to be favortes with every one on
board the man-of-war. They we're often given
full liberty of the ship. and one day Fanny
went on foraging expedition into the stew
ard s pantry. The irate steward kicked her out
| against gun and broke one of her fore legs.
With the assistance Of the surgeon / set the
| broken bone, but the little lioness refused to
eat. and after four weeks suffering she died.
An autopsy developed the fact that her back
was nearly broken also. and it seemed wonder
full thai she could have lived so long in such
condition; but Il IL only shows the endurance
OF the cat species, with their proverbial nine
lives.
JACK GREW Up ALONE.
Jack for awhile seemed quite disconsolate,
but soon recovered and thrived nicely on ships
rations. He grew rapidly and we soon had to
build larger cage for him. He WAS generally
very good natured. but sometimes the wildness
OF his nature came out and he spread his claws,
showed his teeth and looked quite belligerent.
in few months Jack was as large as a New
foundand dog. and the dark stripes had faded
till be WAS solid dark brown: his fur grew
quite long and be was beautiful. graceful
| auima.- had heavy sole leather collar made
for him with an iron ring in 1t, to which Sc
cured rope several yards in length. In good
weather brought him ont of his cage and tied
| him to the anchor on deck or to gun carriage
| and allowed him to amuse himself He would
crouch behind something and wait for some
one to pass by, then swift as fash
he would leap forward on any blue
jacket that passed by-but his attacks were
harmless. and resulted in nothing worse than
| tearing clothes. One night l had midwatch
and was playing with Jack upon the quarter
deck fhad been allowing him to Jump after
ball OF spun yarn. and his antics reminded
me OF kitten at play. Suddenly the chief en-.
gineer. who was afraid of Jack and said that
he would get fierce some day and kill some one
came down the gangway and Jack tugged at
his collar, for he seemed to dislike the chief,
probably because the latter had shown some
tear of him.
sPRANa AT THE CHIEF ENGINEER.
81 waited till the chief was just abreast Of us,
about ten feet distant, and then let him 60; he
paused just an instant, nervously lifting his
feet, then sprang for the chief / held on to
the rope and then tried to check him. SO that
he fell short Of the chief but last resort he
| threw out his long forearm and his claws Just
| caught the chiefs coat, ripping it from the
should down The chief, thoroughly frightened.
| l,x.1 hxl, - A
safely locked in his room, while laughed at
his expense.
I'm order to have fresh provisions at sea we
took some geese and ducks and half a dozen
sheep to sea- We allowed the geese and ducks
| to run loose about the decks and kept the sheep
| in a pen amidships. Jack looked with longing
eyes Oh the fresh provisions and finally one
| morning he wormed his head out of the collar
and clearing the fifty feet that separated him
| from the nearest duck seized the fowl by the
neck and trOtted off. The officer of the deck
started toward him and Jack began to make
| belligerent signs. The officer grabbed
cutlass and retreated TO the star
| board end of the bridge. while Jack
ensconced himself on the other end, snarling
and showing his teeth rs he tasted the warm
blood of the duck. AcrOwd of men surrounded
him and one held the door of his cage Open
This array startled him, and thinking to enjoy
his duck alone he rushed for the cage. As he
ran down the gangway some one hit him with
dropped the duck and dashed into the cage
the door of which was closed behind him. He
then discovered that his duck was gone, and he
was mad for hours, throwing his head from
side to side and paving and gnawing at his
| cage.
AFTER FRESH MUTTON.
"a few days latei he was again tied out on
| deck and tugged and grawed at his rope for
hours to get at the sheep. but he found these
efforts futile aud resOrted to- other tactics.
| He stretched out and was apparently asleep
| when the blue jacket that generally fed him
united him to put him in the cage, but Jack
was not asleep and had evidently laid deep
plan for no sooner was the rope loose than he
sprang like fash for the sheep pen. In
a few bounds he was at the pen, but
some one had grabbed the rope and
secured it just in time to prevent him
from securing "a ssheep. but Jack agaiA
stretched out his long forearm and car ried
away claw full OF wool from the nearest
sheep. By the timo we. reached the United
States Jack weighed over 2OO pounds and was
sometimes inclined to be fierce. 10 the Wis
itors he was great curiosity and always
seemed proud to be shown Off He would
swing hls head from side to side in a Iordly
way and paw the deck, growing In terrifying
| way, but it was all in fun
HIS FIRST SNOW STORM.
"In the winter of 1880 we went into Ports
| mouth N H. and here Jack m W his frat sno,~