The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-01-25
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Cat TdLeS==zand Tails

. EXCHANGE you have heard Of a cat
o'-nine tails. If you have, I am sure
you will believe me when I say that my
big Maltese, Tom, who had two tales. One
was, you may imagine, a long, glossy
tail with little white hair mixed in to
give the gray softer look; the other was
a very different tale, rather short one,
with little adventure to give it spice.
Both, however, are claimed uncondition-
ally by Tom.
But another cat is the happy possessor
OF two tales of precisely the same charac-
ter, and that is the cat of Mr.. Thon. my
next neghbor. Not only are the tales of
our cats alike but the cats themselves do
not differ in the least. When Mr. Thon
and l first got our cats they were the
source Of much trouble. A large stone
wall separated our back yards, but not
our cats. Tom would be summing con-
tentedly on the wall when Jerry, that cat
of Thon's, would happen along. He would
jump upon the wall near Tom and they
would glare at each other in a conceited
way for a while; then they would spit,
chew and yowl, and pretty only
bunch of fur whirling at terrific rate
would be visible. OF course, I would
not interfere, because 1 might hurt Tom,
and Mr.. Thon would not interfere for
fear of hurting Jerry, so we let them
fight At last one of them came sailing in
o. my direction and the other disappeared
in the other. Such looking specimen as
he was. He had evidently gone in for ex-
pansion, for his lover jaw had expanded
about an inch, and was sadly displaced.
One eye was closed and blackened-lf
cats have black eyes, and a paw hung
limp and useless.
"Well,' thought, as he sat and licked
the badly used parts, that must be
Thon's cat, and Thon must have mine. I
will put him in sack and toss him over
the wall. I am sure Tom would not get
whipped that bad.
So l did. Thon must have been struck
with a similar impulse, for as l threw
my sack over, another came from the
opposite side. I opened it in a fever of
excitement. 1t was Tom all right-at
any rate it was the better looking cat of
the two. For couple of days he be-
haved pretty we'll. But one afternoon he
saw Jerry lying on the fence where he
was accustomed to lie, so he went on the
warpath. Of course, Jerry came back
instead of Tom, or at least I thought SO.
Naturally 1 sacked him and tossed him
back But the cat I received in return
was the worse looking of the two. That
would Eever do, so l took Tom down by
the wall to a barrel of lime and dipped
the tip of his tail in, expecting to be able
to tell him from Thon's abominable cat
the next time. The plan worked beauti-
fully, till the eve of battle, when. unfnr-
tunately, both tumbled into that self-same
barrel of lime. Once more their tails
were alike. Thon said that I put out the
lime purposely to drown the cats. I said
that I did not; secretly thinking at the
same time that it would not have been a
very great loss, for, as soon as Tom extri-
Gated himself, he made indelible tracks
for the parlor and lay down on an expen-
sive Persian rug to let the lime drain off.
About this time our other neighbors be-
came interested in the affair and took up
a collection to send off to New York for
some cat food, which was warranted to
keep cats from fighting. In due time it
came, and we fed Tom and Jerry on it
continually. 1t kept them from fighting
from that day to this, for both cats mys-
teriously disappeared, leaving naught but
their tales.
Edwin D. Kenyon,
Central School. Saltwater, MINI