The herald., 1897-02-12

to the neighbors' houses and behaves
prettily as visitor. never scratching
the children or quarreling with the dogs.
He has his special chair at the dinner
table, and waits to be helped as the
other guests, asking a blessing with 4
contented purr of thankfulness, and then
tapping his milk or nibbling his chick
en- as daintily as young lady at a bal!
supper.
Notwithstanding his sanguinary
achievements in the hunting field, his
fur is always spotlessly clean and his
nails deftly manicured, and no one
would ever imagine that they had ever
been buried in rats vitals or had
scratched the Shiny skin of snake.
His whiskers especially are trained
like those of a Partisan gentleman Of
fashion, and while they can bristle
fiercely in a fight, can also curl coquet-
tishly when greeting friends or welcom-
ing good looking strangers. whose ap-
pearance may chance to please his fickie
fancy.
His peculiar "miaow'' is multiphonic,
and would almost persuade the hearer
that the cat has a language of his own,
articulate and phonetic. The family
lily has arrived at the understanding Of
it's varied infections SO as to compre-
hend perfectly what the animal wants
and wishes, and the cat in return COM
prehends every word spoken in his pres
ence, be it English or French, both of
which tongues are of common use in the
household.
Nimrod apparently hunts and fishes
for two reasons. In the first place. he
seems to enjoy the excitement of the
chase and the battle to the death WHICH
invariably follows, with the cat a victor.
In the second place, he apparently feels
that, for some reason, he is expected TO
I t.Af 70 ~
larder, and, so far as is known, he never
attempts to eat the game which lie
catches but invariably brings it home
to his mistress and lays 1t at her feet.
When the game Is prepared for the
table he enjoys his portion Of it with
the rest of the family. His hunting rec
ord for the present season has been one
of which human hunter, armed with
the most complete and modern sporting
arms, might be more than proud.
He has caught. killed and brought
home one Woodchuck, one American
marten, one muskrat, five minks. sew
eral weasels, eighteen gray squirrels and
ground squirrels, 173 rabbits, fifteen
partridges and a big blacksnake.
With all these to his credit as sport
ing feline Nimrod has found time to fire.
quently go fishing, catch big owl and
keep the premises of the family free
from rats. Upon an unlucky occasion
Nimrod himself got caught and came
limplng nome with his fore feet fast in
the cruel Jaws of a small steel trap.
The sharp steel had cut through the
fur and flesh to the bone, but the cat
went at once to his mistress and seemed
Ito understand that release and the
dressing of the wound would be pain
full, for all through the operation of
washing, dressing and binding up OF the
hurt he lay on lounge and made no
move until the uncomfortable process
was completed.
In appearance he is a big black ami
NAL with long silken fur, with only one
tiny white spot on his body. that being
on the right side of his back. He gen.
orally prefers to hunt alone, but between
Nimrod and Sport. the family dog, there
is q strong friendship. They eat out of
the same dish and sometimes go on hunt
ing trips together. From one of these
trips they came home late at night;
Nimrod with black snake and plump
partridge in his mouth, while Sport
carried an old partridge.
They deposited their. spOils at the feet
Of Miss Cook and Nimrod seemed quite
put out when the snake was not put into
the pot and boiled with the partridge.
He seemed. however, to realize that
snakes arc not popular az an article either