The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1897-09-09
Maddox's Barking Cat.
Nursed by a Canine Foster Mother he has Many
Traits Of the Dog Tribe
Stockton Springs.

Ai"itS VI tuS DVS AIiuO'
James NJ Maddox. superintendent of
the Missouri District Telegraph Company,
has cat. Besides the usual feline COM
plement of nine lives, this cat has past,
and, unless all signs fail, future which
falls to the lot of few cats, says the st.
Louis Republic.
His name is Towser, and, although his
mother was a well bred tabby, Towser
has all the characteristics, habits and frail-
ties of dog. In early kittenhood Tow
ser S mother fell victim to the deadly
cat rifle of a small boy, and Mr.. Maddox
found a foster mother for the kitten i'll a
kind hearted pet dog with young family
and troubles of her Own. The canine
mother took kindly to the little founding,
and i0wser, the kitten, grew fat and
sassy with a litter of puppy foster broth
ers and sisters.
When the kitten was weaned he showed
no tendency to abandon tie dogs life
which he had learned to lead, and began
to exhibit all the canine characteristics
which he lad nursed with his adopted
mother milk. Instead of mewing and
caterwauling like a melancholy orphan
cat, he began to bark like the puppies.
anu SIoNI Us klitN UlUi ttHt ne ueCuiIiI
the wonder of the friends aud visitors at
the Maddox home. He was named Tow
ser and responds to the whistle Of his
master like a sure enough dog. Perhaps
the oddest trick Towser has learned is
that OF waggiug his tail which he does
not in the serpentine manner of his an
cestors, but from side to side, in the Wig
orous and uncompromising style Of dog.
InN.Spr % h his +lil
and when thoroughly scared will tuck his
long appendage between his legs. as he
has seen his foster brethren do, and run
to cover During the hot weather Tow
ser 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 ObsequiOus manner of other
cats. IOwser has mastered that mySteri-
Gus freemasonry 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, who, accepting
no overtures, would attempt to rend
Towser on the spot, and it is only on such
rare occasions that Towser's feline pro-
pensities come to the surface. When a
dog attacks him he will climb a tree or
fence, where he will sit growing and
barking at the enemy until he satisfies
him that he is not really cat, but dog,
in all but physical conformation.
Towser is very fond of run through
the streets with his master, and from
long jaunts 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 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 never been
known to bite any one, and has earned
for himself the reputation of being very
docile and intelligent dog, OF cat, as the
case may be.