The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-11-24


G woke one morning to
find him curled up COM
fortably at the foot of our bed.
We had never seen him before, and
we had not the least idea how he had
continued to get into the house every
night. But there he was, a scrawny,
unamiable looking beast, of hue
that jeff called "brindle yellow"
"Where did you come from, pussyP
I asked, and a snarling miau was the
only reply. Jeff put out his hand to
stroke him and received a scratch in
resentment of this liberty.
He had evidently come from affair."
He looked tired and bedraggled and
wayworn. He was large creature,
but he looked weak and exhausted as
he lay on the bed.
'He's been on the war path, L
guess, said jeff. "Looks as if he'd
be great fighter"
We had never had a cat at our
house. Mother did not care to have
one around, and she said that she did
not care to begin by adopting one OF
this sort. When he came downstairs
he was given good breakfast and
invited to proceed on his journey.
He yawned, stretched, and then
crawled under the kitchen stove, and
went to sleep. Efforts to dislodge
him were all in vain. He was utterly
indifferent to a broom handle, and
when mother set saucer OF milk by
the stove, hoping to coax him out in
that way, he reached out one paw
and deliberately upset the dish.
But during the day he began to
manifest some of the contradictory
elements in his character, for he came
out from under the stove of his own
accord, and rubbed up against moth
er, miauing in the most cordial man.
ner. Then he strolled out for little
air and exercise, and ten minutes
later jeff and l found him shaking
the life out of an enormous rat in the
rear of our henhouse.
"That's the very rat that has been
carrying off mothers chicken, I'll bet
dime" said jeff. ga cat is better
than any rat trap or Rough on rats
ever invented"
Mother seemed to think so too,
when we told about the rat, for she
said:
1.-The rats are getting SO bad that I
don't know but it might be good
idea to keep the cat for awhile if he's
a good rat catcher. Well let him
stay awhile"
We told the cat of this decision in
his favor, but it made no impression
upon him, since he had evidently
settled the matter himself early in
the day.
We named him Tige because there
was something strongly suggestive
of the tiger in his general appearance,
and in the unsubdued fierceness he
frequently manifested. He feared
no living thing. Our dog, Nero, had
a great fondness for chasing stray
cats, and would bark with delight
when he had sent them scurrYing up
among the tree tops. But he met
with a reception that fairly dazed him
when he sought thus to divert him
self at the expense of old Tige.
Tige was stretched out in the sun
shine on our back porch, apparently
asleep, when Nero came around the
corner of the house. He gave yelp
of delight when he saw Tige, and
bounded forward. jeff saw the
scrimmage that followed, and he
said that it made his blood run cold
to hear the awful snarl that came
from Tige's throat as he shot through
the air and landed on the amazed
Nero's back.
1t would really be too narrowing
jeff says l ought to spell it "hair-
rowing"-to describe the conflict in
detail. Such caterwauling, splitting,
and clawing as Tige did and how