believe that the debtors there confined were at times so neglected as to
be absolutely starving; so much so, that a Mr. Morgan, a surgeon of
Liverpool, being put into that prison, was ultimately reduced so low by
poverty, neglect, and hunger, as to catch mice by the means of a cat for
his sustenance. This is stated to be the fact in a book written by Moses
Pitt, "The Cries of the Oppressed," 1691.
[Illustration]
GENERAL MANAGEMENT.
FEEDING.
Adult cats require less food in proportion than kittens, for two
reasons. One is this: a kitten is growing, and therefore extra bone,
flesh, skin, hair, and all else has to be provided for; while in the
adults, these are more or less acquired, and also they procure for
themselves, in various ways in country or suburban localities, much live
and other food, and no animal is the better for over or excessive
feeding, especially if confined, or its chances of exercise contracted.
I have tried many ways or methods of feeding, biscuits of sorts, liver,
lights, horseflesh, bread and milk, rice, fish, and cat mixtures, but
have always attained the best results by giving new milk as drink, and
raw shin of beef for food, with grass, boiled asparagus stems,
cabbage-lettuce, or some other vegetable, either cooked or fresh. Good
horseflesh is much liked by the cat, and it thrives well on it. I do not
believe in either liver or lights as a flesh or bone maker. Besides the
beef, there are the "tit-bits" that the household cat not only usually
receives, but looks for or expects.
My dear friend, Mr. John Timbs, in "Things not Generally Known," avers
that cats are not so fond of fish as flesh, and that the statement that
they are is a fallacy. He says, put both before them and they will take
the flesh first, and this I have found to be correct. I should only give
fresh fish, as a rule, to a cat when unwell, more as an alternative than
food.
As raw meat or other raw food is natural to the cat, it is far the best,
with vegetables, for keeping the body, coat, and skin in good condition
and health, and the securing of a rich, bright, high colour and quality.
On no account try to improve these by either medicinal liquids, pills,
or condiments; nothing can be much worse, as reflection will prove. If
the cat is healthy, it is at its best, and will keep so by proper food;
if unwell, then use such medicines as the disease or complaint it
suffers from requires, _and not otherwise_. Many horses and other
animals have their constitutions entirely ruined by what are called
"coat tonics," which are useless, and only believed in and practised by
the thoughtless, gullible, and foolish. Does any one, or will any one
take pills, powders, or liquids, for promoting the colour or texture of
their hair; would any one be so silly? And yet we are coolly told to
give such things to our animals. Granted that in illness medicine is of
much service, in health it is harmful, and tends to promote disease
where none exists.
SLEEPING PLACES.
I much prefer a round basket filled with oat straw to anything else;
some urge that a box is better; my cats have a basket. It is well to
sprinkle the straw occasionally with Keating's Powder or flour of
sulphur, which is a preventive of insect annoyances, and "Prevention is
better than cure."
Never shut cats up in close cupboards for the night, there being little
or no ventilation; it is most injurious, pure air being as essential to
a cat as to a human being.
Always have a box with dry earth near the cat's sleeping place, unless
there is an opening for egress near.
Do not, as a rule, put either collar or ribbon on your cat; though they
may thereby be improved in appearance, they are too apt to get entangled
or caught by the collar, and often strangulation ensues; besides which,
in long-haired cats, it spoils their mane or frill. Of course at shows
it is allowable.
All cats, as well as other animals, should have ready access to a pan of
clear water, which should be changed every day, and the pan cleaned.
Fresh air, sunlight, and warm sunshine are good, both for cats and their
owners.
It is related of Charles James Fox that, walking up St. James's Street
from one of the club-houses with the Prince of Wales, he laid a wager
that he would see more cats than the Prince in his walk, and that he
might take which side of the street he liked. When they reached the top,
it was found that Mr. Fox had seen thirteen cats, and the Prince not
one. The Royal personage asked for an explanation of this apparent
miracle. Mr. Fox said: "Your Royal Highness took, of course, the shady
side of the way as most agreeable; I knew the sunny side would be left
for me, and _cats always prefer the sunshine_."
A most essential requisite for the health of the cat is cleanliness. In
itself the animal is particularly so, as may be observed by its constant
habit of washing, or cleaning its fur many times a day; therefore, a
clean basket, clean straw, or clean flannel, to lie on--in fact,
everything clean is not only necessary, but is a necessity for its
absolute comfort.
Mr. Timbs says: "It is equally erroneous that she is subject to fleas;
the small insect, which infests the half-grown kitten, being a totally
different animal, exceedingly swift in running, but not salient or
leaping like a flea."
In this Mr. Timbs slightly errs. Cats _do_ have fleas, but not often,
and of a different kind to the ordinary flea; but I have certainly seen
them jump.
In dressing the coat of the cat no comb should be used, more especially
with the long-haired varieties; but if so, which I do not recommend,
great care should be used not to drag the hair so that it comes out, or
breaks, otherwise a rough, uneven coat will and must be the result.
Should the hair become clotted, matted, or felted, as is sometimes the
case, it ought to be moistened, either with oil or soft-soap, a little
water being added, and when the application has well soaked in, it will
be found comparatively easy to separate the tangle with the fingers by
gently pulling out from the mass a few hairs at a time, after which wash
thoroughly, and use a soft, long-haired brush; but this must be done
with discretion, so as not to spoil the natural waviness of the hair, or
to make it lie in breadths instead of the natural, easy,
carelessly-parted flaky appearance, which shows the white or blue cat
off to such advantage.
WASHING.
Most cats have a dislike to water, and as a rule, and under ordinary
conditions, generally keep themselves clean, more especially the
short-haired breeds; but, as is well known, the Angora, Persian, and
Russian, if not taken care of, are sure to require washing, the more so
to prepare them for exhibition, as there is much gain in the condition
in which a cat comes before the judge.
There are many cases of cats taking to the water and swimming to certain
points to catch fish, or for other food, on record; yet it is seldom
that they take a pleasure in playing about in it. I therefore think it
well to mention that I had a half-bred black and white Russian, that
would frequently jump into the bath while it was being filled, and sit
there until the water rose too high for its safety. Thus cats may be
taught to like washing.
If a cat is to be washed, treat it as kindly and gently as is possible,
speaking in a soothing tone, and in no way be hasty or sudden in your
movements, so as to raise distrust or fear. Let the water be warm but
not hot, put the cat in slowly, and when its feet rest on the bottom of
the tub, you may commence the washing.
Mr. A. A. Clarke, the well-known cat fancier, says: "I seldom wash my
cats, I rather prefer giving them a good clean straw-bed, and attending
to their general health and condition, and they will then very seldom
require washing. I find that much washing makes the coat harsh and poor,
and I also know from experience that it is 'a work of art' to wash a
cat properly, and requires an artist in that way to do it. My plan is to
prepare some liquid soap, by cutting a piece into shreds, and putting it
into cold water, and then boiling it for an hour. I then have two clean
tubs got ready, one to wash, the other to rinse in. Have soft water
about blood heat, with a very small piece of soda in the washing-tub,
into which I place the cat, hind-quarters first, having some one that it
knows perfectly well, to hold and talk to the cat while the washing is
going on. I begin with the tail, and thoroughly rubbing in the soap with
my hands, and getting by degrees over the body and shoulders up to the
ears, leaving the head until the cat is rinsed in the other tub, which
ought to be half filled with warm soft water, into which I place the
cat, and thoroughly rinse out all the soap, when at the same time I wash
the head, and I then sit in front of the fire and dry with warm towels;
and if it is done well and thoroughly, it is a good three hours' hard
work."
I would add to the foregoing that I should use Naldire's dog soap, which
I have found excellent in all ways, and it also destroys any insect life
that may be present.
Also in washing, be careful not to move the hands in circles, or the
hair will become entangled and knotty, and very difficult to untwist or
unravel. Take the hair in the hands, and press the softened soap through
and through the interstices, and when rinsing do the same with the
water, using a large sponge for the purpose. After drying I should put
the cat in a box lightly, full of oat straw, and place it in front of,
or near a fire, at such distance as not to become too warm, and only
near enough to prevent a chill before the cat is thoroughly dry.
MATING.
Yet nature is made better by no mean,
But nature makes that mean: so, o'er that art,
Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art
That nature makes.
_Coriolanus, Act II. Scene I._
This requires much and careful consideration, and in this, as well as in
many other things, experience and theory join hands, while the knowledge
of the naturalist and fancier is of great and superlative value; yet,
with all combined, anything like certainty can never be assured,
although the possession of pedigree is added, and the different
properties of food, health, quality, and breed understood and taken into
account. Still, much may be gained by continued observation and close
study of the peculiar properties of colour, besides that of form. If,
for instance, a really, absolutely _blue_ cat, without a shade of any
other colour, were obtainable, and likewise a pure, clear, canary
yellow, there is little doubt that at a distant period, a green would be
the ultimate goal of success. But the yellow tabby is not a yellow, nor
the blue a blue. There being, then, only a certain variety of colours in
cats, the tints to be gained are limited entirely to a certain set of
such colours, and the numerous shades and half-shades of these mixed,
broken, or not, into tints, markings light or dark, as desired. To all
colour arrangements, if I may so call them, by the mind, intellect, or
hand of man, there is a limit, beyond which none can go. It is thus far
and no further.
There is the black cat, and the white; and between these are intervening
shades, from very light, or white-gray, to darker, blue, dark blue,
blackish blue, gray and black. If a blue-black is used, the lighter
colours are of one tint; if a brown-black, they are another.
Then in what are termed the sandies and browns, it commences with the
yellow-white tint scarcely visible apart from white to the uninitiated
eye; then darker and darker, until it culminates in deep brown, with the
intervening yellows, reds, chestnuts, mahoganys, and such colours, which
generally are striped with a darker colour of nearly their own shade,
until growing denser, it ends in brown-black.
The gray tabby has a ground colour of gray. In this there are the
various shades from little or no markings, leaving the colour a brown or
gray, or the gray gradually disappearing before the advance of the black
in broader and broader bands, until the first is excluded and black is
the result.
The tortoiseshell is a mixture of colours in patches, and is certainly
an exhibition of what may be done by careful selection, mating, and
crossing of an animal while under the control of man, in a state of
thorough domestication. What the almond tumbler is to the pigeon
fancier, so is the tortoiseshell cat to the cat fancier, or the bizarre
tulip to the florist. As regards colour, it is a triumph of art over
nature, by the means of skilful, careful mating, continued with
unwearying patience. We get the same combination of colour in the
guinea-pig, both male and female, and therefore this is in part a proof
that by proper mating, eventually a tortoiseshell male cat should soon
be by no means a rarity. There are rules, which, if strictly followed
under favourable conditions, ought to produce certain properties, such
properties that may be desired, either by foolish (which generally it
is) fashion, or the production of absolute beauty of form, markings in
colours, or other brilliant effects, and which the true fanciers
endeavour to obtain. It is to this latter I shall address my remarks,
rather than to the reproduction of the curious, the inelegant, or the
deformed, such as an undesirable number of toes, which are impediments
to utility.
In the first place, the fancier must thoroughly make up his mind as to
the variety of form, colour, association of colours or markings by
which he wishes to produce, if possible, perfection; and, having done
so, he must provide himself with such stock as, on being mated, are
likely to bring such progeny as will enable him in due time to attain
the end he has in view. This being gained, he must also prepare himself
for many disappointments, which are the more likely to accrue from the
reason that, in all probability, he starts without any knowledge of the
ancestry or pedigree of the animals with which he begins his operations.
Therefore, for this reason, he has to gain his knowledge of any aptitude
for divergence from the ordinary or the common they may exhibit, or
which his practical experience discovers, and thus, as it were, build up
a family with certain points and qualities before he can actually embark
in the real business of accurately matching and crossing so as to
produce the results which, by a will, undeviating perseverance, and
patience, he is hoping to gain eventually--the perfection he so long,
ardently, and anxiously seeks to acquire; but he must bear in mind that
that, on which he sets his mark, though high, must come within the
limits and compass of that which _is_ attainable, for it is not the
slightest use to attempt that which is not within the charmed circle of
possibilities.
TORTOISESHELLS.
I place these first on the list because, being an old pigeon fancier and
somewhat of a florist, I deem these to be the breed wherein there is the
most art and skill required to produce properly all the varied mottled
beauty of bright colours that a cat of this breed should possess; and
those who have bred tortoiseshells well know how difficult a task it is.
In breeding for this splendid, gorgeous, and diversified arrangement of
colouring, a black, or even a blue, may be used with a yellow or red
tabby female, or a white male, supposing either or both were the
offspring of a tortoiseshell mother. The same males might be used with
advantage with a tortoiseshell female. This is on the theory of whole
colours, and patches or portions of whole colours, without bars or
markings when possible. In the same way some of the best almond tumbler
pigeons are bred from an almond cock mated to a yellow hen. The
difficulty here, until lately, has been to breed hens of the varied
mottling on almond colour, the hen almost invariably coming nearly, if
not quite yellow--so much so that forty to fifty years ago a yellow hen
was considered as a pair to an almond cock, in the same way as the red
tabby male is now regarded in respect to the tortoiseshell female; and
it was not until at Birmingham, many years ago, when acting as judge, I
refused to award prizes to them as such, that the effort was made, and a
successful one, to breed almond-coloured hens with the same plumage as
the cock--that is, the three colours. With cats the matter is entirely
different, it being the male at present that is the difficulty, if a
real difficulty it may be called.
Mr. Herbert Young, a most excellent cat fancier and authority on the
subject, is of opinion that if a tortoiseshell male cat could be found,
it would not prove fertile with a tortoiseshell female. But of this I am
very doubtful, because, if the red and the yellow tabby is so, which is
decidedly a weaker colour, I do not see how it can possess more vitality
than a cat marked with the _three_ colours; in fact the latter ought, in
reality, to be more prolific, having black as one of the colours, which
is a strong colour, blue being only the weak substitute, or with white
_combined_. A whole black is one of the strongest colours and most
powerful of cats.
Reverting once again to the pigeon fancier by way of analogy, take, as
an instance, what is termed the silver-coloured pigeon, or the yellow.
These two, and duns, are, by loss of certain pigments, differently
coloured and constituted (like the tortoiseshell among cats) from other
varieties of pigeons of harder colours, such as blues, and blacks, or
even reds. For a long time silver turbit cock pigeons were so scarce
that, until I bred some myself, I had never seen such a thing; yet hens
were common enough, and got from silver and blues. In the nestling
before the feathers come, the young of these colours are without down,
and are thus thought to be, and doubtless are, a weakly breed; yet there
is no absolute diminution of strength, beyond that of colour, when
silver is matched to silver; but dun with dun, these last go lower in
the scale, losing the black tint, and not unfrequently the colour is
yellow; or, matched with black, breed true blacks. I am, therefore, of
opinion that a tortoiseshell male and female would, and should, produce
the best of tortoiseshells, both male and female.
It not unfrequently happens that from a tortoiseshell mother, in the
litter of kittens there are male blacks and clear whites, and I have
known of one case when a good blue and one where the mixed colours were
blue, light red, and light yellow were produced, while the sisters in
the litter were of the usual pure tortoiseshell markings. In such cases,
generally, the latter only are kept, unless it is the blue, the others
being too often destroyed. My own plan would be to breed from such black
or white males, and if not successful in the first attempt, to breed
again in the same way with the young obtained with such cross; and I
have but little doubt that, by so doing, the result so long sought after
would be achieved. At least, I deem it far more likely to be so than the
present plan of using the red tabby as the male, which are easily
produced, though very few are of high excellence in richness of ground
tints.
TORTOISESHELL-AND-WHITE.
If tortoiseshell-and-white are desired, then a black-and-white male may
be selected, being bred in the same way as those recommended for the
pure tortoiseshell, or one without white if the female has white; but on
_no account_ should an ordinary tabby be tolerated, but a red tabby
female of deep colour, or having white, may be held in request, though
I would prefer patches of colour not in any way barred. The gray tabby
will throw barred, spotted, or banded kittens, mixed with tortoiseshell,
which is the very worst form of mottling, and is very difficult to
eradicate. A gray "ticking" will most likely appear between the dark
colour, as it does between the black bars of the tabby.
BLACK.
The best black, undoubtedly, are those bred from tortoiseshell mothers
or females. The black is generally more dense, and less liable to show
any signs of spots, bands, or bars, when the animal is in the sun or a
bright light; when this is so, it is fatal to a black as regards its
chance of a prize, or even notice, and it comes under the denomination
of a black tabby.
If a black and a white cat are mated, let the black be the male, blacks
having more stamina, the issue will probably be either white or black;
and also when you wish the black to be perpetuated, the black male must
be younger. In 1884, a black female cat was exhibited with five white
kittens. I have just seen a beautiful black Persian whose mother was a
clear white; this, and the foregoing example, prove either colour
represents the same for the purpose of breeding to colour.
For breeding black with white, take care that the white is the
gray-white, and not the yellow-white; the first generally has orange or
yellow eyes, and this is one of the required qualities in the black cat.
If a yellow-white with blue eyes, this type of eye would be detrimental,
and most likely the eyes of the offspring would have a green stain, or
possibly be of odd colours.
It should be borne in mind, that black kittens are seldom or ever so
rich in colour when newly born, as they afterwards become; therefore, if
without spots or bars, and of a deep self brown-black, they will in all
possibility be fine in colour when they gain their adult coat. This the
experienced fancier well knows, though the tyro often destroys that
which will ultimately prove of value, simply from ignorance. An instance
of the brown-black kitten is before me as I write, in a beautiful
Persian, which is now changing from the dull kitten self brown-black on
to a brilliant glossy, jetty beauty.
BLUES.
Blue in cats is one of the most extraordinary colours of any, for the
reason that it is the _mixture_ of black which is no colour, and white
which is no colour, and this is the more curious because black mated
with white generally produces either one colour or the other, or breaks
black and white, or white and black. The blue being, as it were, a
weakened black, or a withdrawal by white of some, if not all, of the
brown or red, varying in tint according to the colour of the black from
which it was bred, dark-gray, or from weakness in the stamina of the
litter. In the human species an alliance of the Negro, or African race,
and the European, produces the mulatto, and some other shades of
coloured skin, though the hair generally retains the black hue; but
seldom or ever are the colours broken up as in animal life, the only
instance that has come to my knowledge, and I believe on record, being
that of the spotted Negro boy, exhibited at fairs in England by
Richardson, the famous showman; but in this case both the parents were
black, and natives of South Africa. The boy arrived in England in
September, 1809, and died February, 1813. His skin and hair were
everywhere parti-coloured, transparent brown and white; on the crown of
his head several triangles, one within the other, were formed by
alternations of the colour of the hair.