The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1897-11-13
A CAT.
Nursed by a Foster Mother, He Has
Traits of the Dog.

NurBeO Dy q roster MOtnef, he d01
Traits Of the Dog.
James H. Maddox, superintendent of
the Missouri District Telegraph Com
pany, has a cat. Besides the usual fe-
line complement 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 nam is Towser, and, although
his mother was a well-bred lady, Tow
ser has all the characteristics, habits
and frailties of a dog. In early kitten
hood Towser's mother fell a victim to
the deadly cat rife of a small boy and
Mr.. Maddox found a foster mother for
the kitten in a k%ind-hearted pet dog,
with a young family and troubles of
her own. The canine mother took
kindly to the little founding and Tow
ser, the kitten, grew fat and sassy with
a 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
and began to exhibit all the canine
characteristics which he hid nursed
with his adopted mothers milk. In
stead of mewing and caterwauling like
a melancholy orphan cat he began to
bark ! k the other puppies, and growl
like they did, and he became the WON
der of the friends and visitors at the
Maddox home. He was named "Tow-
Ser' and rocpondo IN Tho -,h;n+1o L;c
master like a sure enough dog. Per-
haps the oldest trick Towser has learn
ed is that of wagging his tail, which he
does, not in the serpentine manner Of
his ancestors, but from side to side, in
the vigorous and uncompromising style
of a 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, pant
Ing 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 a dog trot or a real gallop instead of
in the soft-footed and obsequious man
ner of other cats. Towser has master
ed that mysterious 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 lamp-posts and
telegraph poles. Occasionally he has
run across an ugly terrier, which, &C.
cepting 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
q 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 a dog in all but ply
steal conformation.
Towser is very fond Of a run through
the streets with his master, and from
long jaunts W. the granitoid pave
ments and rough streets his once vel
vet paws have been covered with cal
ious corns until his football is no long
er inaudible, and his toe-nails are as
rough and strong as those of a dog.
Towser has a 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 new
er been known to bite any one and has
earned for himself the reputation of
being a very docile and intelligent dog,
or cat. as the case may be.