Evening star., 1925-04-26
This and That
By Charles E.. TraceWeH.

A tremendous yowling split the si-
lence of Estey alley. it was not one
of those yowls that had grown in in
tensity for several moments. but was
of the sort that springs full-fedged
out of nothing in particular.
a peculiarly piercing quality to
some of the sounds informed me that
Jack Spratt, alley cat de luxe, was
engaged in a battle down on the other
side of the lamp post.
There is no mistaking Jack. His
clear soprano is delicately attuned.
soaring aloft on wings Of song, quiv-
ering in long waves of at least 364
meters. 1t is easily distinguishable for
a block or more.
! When this cat is out for the night.
one usually knows he is smewhere in
the vicinity, because his dulcet tones
| place him accurately. Sometimes he
| fights on the back porch, where it
cannot be said he does it best of all,
| TO paraphrase the recently popular
song.
| Sometimes he goes into battle in the
alley, and the intensity of his pitch
/ informs his friends Just about his ex-
act location. One night he was heard
at a distance, down in the next block,
engaged in wordy preliminary combat.
While Jack cannot truthfully be said
always to win his fights, this much
can be stated, that for the past six
months he has emerged from them
with the loss of only half a whisker.
| Mr.. Spratt is very fond of his
whiskers. quite proud of them, in fact.
! There is Just exactly the same num-
| Der to the left of his nose as there is
| to the right, to say nothing of four
| feelers or what ever-you ALIEN above
each eye.
This sudden yowling, however, was
not in the small hours, but occurred
when the shades of night were falling
| fast, as the poet said.
Here was a chance / thought, to
see a good cat fight. I must con-
| fess I like to watch cats fight. They
mix it up so gleefully, and usually
emerge without any particular causal-
cruel sport.
Cats are such timber animals, with
such an amazing power of humping
up and twisting their backbones, that
when fighting each other they are
as slippery as eels. They are pro-
vided with a formidable battery of
weapons, it is true, so that one might
think off hand they would deal out
much damage to each other.
|
return to it's home with one ear
chewed up, a cut across the nose,
or some other such mishap, but as a
general thing these injuries are only
| minor.
Felines, engaging in fisticuffs in the
aliey, can stage a lively bout without
offending the sensibilities of the most
tender-if only the latter really under
| stood cats They usually do not.
l n q
cat fight. generally they imagine the
| four-legged fellows are tearing each
other limb from limb.
Most fights end with the larger cat
! getting the other down and maul1ng II
| for a second, until the "under-dog
manages to get to his feet and beat
a hasty retreat.
Such fighting is one of the big joys
in the life of our faithful house pets.
1t is meat and drink to them. Person
allv no cat has any use whatever for
any other cat. Friendship among
| them is unknown. Sometimes they
tolerate each other, that is all.
| With simultaneous springs. Jack
| Spratt and Old Whitley mixed II up.
They met in midair, like two nghtlng
moose. and clawed furiously.
4
Sir Spratt tumbled over the dirty
white of Old Whitley. the two beasts
revolving so rapidly that the total
color combination, resulted In a sense
| of grayness.
| Out of the mass the strong right
| foreleg of Spratt emerged, poised In
air Just for a second, then descended
| in a wide arc, the feline equivalent
| for a neat uppercut.
"Yee-ow!" screamed Old Whitley,
| who had the edge on Spratt by at
least two pounds, a tremendous gain
in Catland.
| Whitley tried shock tactics then,
attempting to spring into the air to
| knock Spratt to the ground. But Jack
ducked, Slipped and countered,
knocking Whitley down on his back.
/ The battle was over. Without a
whimper. Old Whitley slipped out and
| ran down the alley. taking the low
fences easily. with Spratt in glad
pursuit.
Old whitey's owner came up.
"You>oughtJto be ashamed Of your