Cats exhibit their affectionate nature in a variety of ways. If
deprived of their kittens, they have a yearning for the care of some
other young creatures, which they will gratify when possible.
A cat had been cruelly deprived of all her kittens. She was seen going
about mewing disconsolately for her young ones. Her owner received
about the same time a leveret, which he hoped to tame by feeding it with
a spoon. One morning, however, the leveret was missing, and as it could
nowhere be discovered, it was supposed to have been carried off and
killed by some strange cat or dog. A fortnight had elapsed, when, as
the gentleman was seated in his garden, in the dusk of the evening, he
observed his cat, with tail erect, trotting towards him, purring and
calling in the way cats do to their kittens. Behind her came,
gambolling merrily, and with perfect confidence, a little leveret,--the
very one, it was now seen, which had disappeared. Pussy, deprived of
her kittens, had carried it off and brought it up instead, bestowing on
it the affection of her maternal heart.
It is your blessed privilege to have hearts to feel the greatest
enjoyment in tender love for others. See that you keep that love in
constant exercise, or, like others of our best gifts, it may grow dull
by disuse or abuse. The time may come when, deprived of your parents or
brothers and sisters, you will bitterly mourn the sorrow you have caused
by your evil temper or neglect.