The Portland daily press., 1897-09-22
A BARKING CAT.
Nursed by Foster Mother, He Has Traits
of the Dog.

James H. Maddox, superintendent of
the Missouri District Telegraph company
has cat. Besides the usual feline COM
plement of nine lives, this cat has a past.
and, unless all signs fail, a future which
falls to the lot of few cats ,-says the St.
Louis Republic.
His name is Towser, and, although This
mother was a well-bred tabby. Towser
has all the characteristics, habits and
frailties of dog. In early kittenhood
Towser's mother fell victim to the
deadly cat rifle of a small boy and Mr..
Maddox found foster mother for the
kitten in a kind hearted pet dog, with a
young family and troubles of her own.
The canine mother took kindly to the
little founding and Towser, the kitten,
grew fat and sassy with litter of puppy
foster brothers and sisters.
When the kitten WAS weaned he showed
no tendency to abandon the dogs life
which he had learned to lead andtbegan
to exhibit all the canine characteristics
which he had nursed with his adopted
mothers milk. Instead Of ,mewing and
caterwauling like a melancholy orphan
cat he began to bark like the other pup
pies, and grow like they did, and he be-
came the wonder of the friends and visi-
tors at the Maddox home. He was named
"Towser" and responds to the whistle
of his master like sure enough dog.
Perhaps the oldest trick Towser has
1ao &c hot Of &c toll xuhi oh
he does, not in the serpentine manner of
his ancestors, but from side to side, in
the vigorous and uncompromising style OF
dog. Towser expresses fear, too, as he
has seen his foster brethren do, and runs
to cover. During the hot weather .Towser
suffered considerably from the heat and
might have been seen sitting about in the
shade, painting with his tongue out, in
the manner supposed to be peculiar to the
dog.
He has none of the sinister traits of his
tribe, does not parade along the narrow
edge of back fences in the dead of night,
and gets from place to place in dog trot
or real gallop instead of in the soft.
footed and obseq uious manner of other
cats. Towser has mastered that mysteri-
Gus free masonry of dogs which has been
the wonder of naturalistS for all time,
and seems to have but little trouble in
forming the acquaintance of strange dogs
which he meets on the street corners and
about the bases of friendly lampposts and
telegraph poles. Occasionally he has run
across an ugly terrier, which, accepting.
no overtures, would attempt to rend
Towser on the spot, and it is only on
such rare occasions that Towser's feline
propensities come to the surface. When
a dog attacks him he will climb a tree or
a fence, where he will sit growing and
barking at the enemy until he satisfies
him that he is not really a cat but dog
il, all but physical conformation.
Towser is very fond of run through
the streets with his master, and from
long iaunts over the granitoid pavements
and rough streets his once velvet paws
have been covered with callous corns,
until his football is no longer inaudible,
and his toe-nails are as rough and strong
as those of dog.
Towser has pronounced antipathy for
women, and will rush at them, barking
furiously and growing as if he would
bite them; his bark is worse than his
bite, however, for he has never been
known to bite any one and has earned for
himself the reputation of being very
docile and intelligent dog, or cat, as the
case may be.