THE CAT
[Illustration: WHITE CAT AND KITTENS.]
THE CAT:
_ITS NATURAL HISTORY; DOMESTIC
VARIETIES; MANAGEMENT AND
TREATMENT._
(_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS._)
BY PHILIP M. RULE.
_WITH AN ESSAY ON FELINE INSTINCT,
BY BERNARD PEREZ._
London:
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LOWREY & CO.,
PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
1887.
Butler & Tanner,
The Selwood Printing Works,
Frome, and London.
TO JOHN COLAM, ESQ.,
SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE
PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS,
THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
IN RECOGNITION OF THE NOBLE AND UNFAILING
DEVOTION DISPLAYED BY HIM IN ADVOCATING
THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY;
AND IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE AUTHOR'S
APPRECIATION OF HIS REGARD FOR AND INTEREST IN
THE SUBJECT OF THE FOLLOWING PAGES.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 1
CHAPTER II.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS (_continued_) 10
CHAPTER III.
FOOD 31
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE MANAGEMENT AND TREATMENT OF CATS 45
CHAPTER V.
DOMESTIC VARIETIES 58
CHAPTER VI.
ON THE DISEASES OF CATS 80
CHAPTER VII.
ON THE DISEASES OF CATS (_continued_) 102
ESSAY ON FELINE INSTINCT 133
PREFACE.
Before sending forth this little book, I consider it my duty to request
the attention of the patient reader to a few introductory and explanatory
remarks. During some portion of the past year I contributed a series of
short papers upon the cat to that most admirable monthly _The Animal
World_. Through the kind and hearty manner in which the Editor brought the
papers out from month to month, and also by the expressed desire of many
friends, I have been encouraged to reproduce the papers in the present
form. Some slight revision has, of course, been found necessary; but very
little addition has been made, it being my desire to produce a small and
attractive volume, with the hope that it may reach to many homes where the
hints it contains can perhaps be of some practical service. Nevertheless,
I hope there may be found enough interesting or instructive matter to
excite in the mind and heart of some a deeper interest in or regard for an
animal that too often is esteemed worthy of but slight attention.
I am indebted to Mr. Harrison Weir for his kindness in supplying me with a
few particulars connected with the organization of the first Cat Show,
held at the Crystal Palace, in 1871.
In the last chapter the reader will see that I have made several
quotations, somewhat at length: I have done so with the very kind and
ready permission of the writer, MR. HAROLD LEENEY, M.R.C.V.S.
P. M. RULE.
MAIDSTONE.
THE CAT.
CHAPTER I.
_GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS._
The origin of the domestic cat (_Felis domestica_) is a subject about
which there has been much conjecture and scientific discussion, but
without any positive issue. Very long before the cat was kept in this
country as a domesticated animal it was possessed by the ancient Egyptians
in a tame state, and was, moreover, held in reverence by that remarkable
and superstitious people, being regarded sacred to the goddess Pasht. At
death the body was embalmed with devout care, and specimens of cat mummies
may be seen in the British Museum. The Egyptian cat (_Felis maniculata_)
may, however, be regarded as probably the original source of our familiar
puss. This wild cat is of a sandy-grey or tawny colour, and with more or
less indistinct markings of the tabby character. It is of about ordinary
size; the tail is in form somewhat like that of most of our cats, and the
ears are largish and pointed in a slightly lynx-like fashion. It is
supposed that domesticated animals spread from Egypt with the tide of
civilization westward. I may here notice that, unlike the dog, the cat
has never been tamed by the savage races of mankind. But by the
civilized, or even the semi-civilized, peoples of the world the cat is at
the present day more or less valued as a useful mouser or as a cherished
household pet. It is remarkable that at a time when the wild cat (_Felis
catus_) was very abundant in England, the house-cat was unknown. It was
evidently an animal of foreign importation, and so highly valued as a
mouser as to have been protected by royal statute. The earliest record of
the tame cat in this country is as remote as A.D. 948. Prince Howel Dda,
or Howel the Good, enforced the very just but primitive fine of a milch
ewe, its fleece and lamb, or as much wheat from the destroyer or robber
of a cat at the Royal granary as would cover it to the tip of the tail,
the animal being suspended by that member, with the head only touching the
ground.
As the domestic cat in different parts of the world will breed
occasionally with the wild races of the locality, and as cats are conveyed
from country to country, it is probable that our cats are of somewhat
compound pedigree. It is considered probable that our fine English tabbies
have a trace of the British wild-cat blood in their veins, although it may
be obscure. The domestic cat is not regarded in zoology as the typical
form to represent the beautiful group known as the _Felidæ_, or the cat
family, as might naturally be supposed; and it might have justly been so.
But the animal chosen as the generic example is the common wild cat, and
therefore known in science as _Felis catus_, _felis_ being the generic
title and _catus_ the specific name, which every reader will understand to
signify cat. It will be beyond the scope and aim of this chapter to
describe all the known distinct species of wild cat. In describing the
true cats, such as the Pampas cat, or the Colocolo of America, the Chaus,
or the Serval of Africa, the Viverrine, or the Leopard cat of India, our
subject would lead us on from these and other "tiger cats," as the Ocelot,
and the Riman-Dahan, without power to define a clear line of distinction,
up to the leopards, and finally to the "King of Beasts" himself. Of all
these _Felidæ_ there are upwards of half a hundred distinct species known,
to say nothing of the permanent varieties--which, with regard to domestic
animals, are termed "breeds"--and the casual "sports," and variations of
colour, etc. But the true wild cat (_Felis catus_) is deserving of notice,
being the only form that is a native of this country, and often termed by
us the British wild cat, although now almost totally extinct on our
island. Its last haunt here is in the remote parts of Scotland; and so
scarce has it become, that its existence, even there, is now somewhat
doubtful. But it is still now to be found, with but slight local
variations, on the continent of Europe and Northern Asia, and is,
therefore, also known as the European wild cat. It is not found very far
north, and neither in Norway nor Sweden; there the lynx reigns supreme.
The wild cat is a fine animal, of larger growth than the cat of our
familiar acquaintance, and stands tall. It is a strong, muscular,
well-built cat,--a perfect tabby,--and so fierce an animal as to have been
justly termed the "British Tiger." An adult male measures about
twenty-eight inches in length from the nose to the root of the tail, and
the tail is about thirteen inches, which is proportionately short, and it
does not taper at the end, as does that of our domestic cats, but is about
the same thickness throughout, resembling somewhat that of the Serval.
When the animal is excited, and the tail enlarges, after the manner of all
cats, it presents a splendid brush.
[Illustration: WILD CAT.]
In country places, where rabbits are abundant,--and, we may add, the
smaller, but not less destructive, rodents, and a variety of feathered
game,--the barn-door cat is sometimes tempted to abscond and take to a
romantic and semi-wild life in the woods. Kittens born of such parents
have no desire for the domestic hearth, and are wild and suspicions to a
degree. Were it not for the vigilance and unremitting persecution of
gamekeepers and others, which has robbed our land of the noble _Felis
catus_, in common with many other rare and interesting creatures, it is
probable that but very few consecutive generations would suffice to
produce a truly wild race.