"The cattery then," continued Stamboul, "in which I was born, was really
a very pleasant home, chiefly I think from the fact that dear old Mrs
Rayne studied our ways and habits. She didn't stint us in food either."
"Gave you plenty of fish, I suppose?" said Cracker.
"Well," said Stamboul, smiling, "I do not deny that cats do like a bit
of fish; but, bless you, my dear Cracker, it is a mistake to think they
don't like flesh far better."
"Mrs Rayne had no less than seven female or queen cats, and two
beautiful Toms. One of these lived in the house constantly and was Mrs
Rayne's especial favourite. He was my dear father, but, alas! like many
a beautiful cat, he got caught in a trap one day, and came home with a
terribly lacerated leg. It got better for a time, but in his struggle
no doubt, my father had hurt himself internally, for he became sickly
after this, grew thin, and lost all appetite. Then his coat fell off in
patches, and one day he was missing.
"Yes, he was found again, but dead. He had only gone down the garden,
feeling, I suppose, that his end was near, and crept in under the dark
shade of a bush to die.
"But the secret of Mrs Rayne's success in rearing nice cats with
wondrous coats, just like mine and yours, Shireen, was this--she fed her
pussies with regularity and gave them plenty of variety of course. A
little porridge and milk was our regular breakfast, but there was some
variety as regards the dinner every day. Nor did she forget that cats
like a little nicely-mashed greens now and then, and even a bit of
tomato and any other raw fruit and vegetable, if it be but a potato
paring."
"Many cats many tastes, I suppose," said Warlock.
"That's it, Warlock, you speak like a book; but then you have enjoyed
the not slight privilege of having had a cat as a companion, the cat
being the superior animal."
Cracker looked at Warlock and Warlock looked at Cracker, and I rather
think their thoughts were very similar, only they said nothing. It
wouldn't have been polite.
"Well, my friends," said Stamboul, "such was the home in which I was
born and reared up to the age of two months. Then the show came round.
"Mrs Rayne said that we--the four kittens--were all very, very
beautiful and fascinating, and that if her purse were only half as big
as her heart she would not part with one of us. `However,' she added,
`those who buy you must pay your price, and having done so, they will
value you all the more.'
"So mother and I were placed in a nice roomy box, not a wretched little
reticule of a thing such as I have more than once travelled in to cat
shows. The guard was warned to take precious care of us, and so he did.
"Mrs Rayne was at the station to meet us herself, and conveyed us in a
cab all the way to the show.
"We were in good time, so that our dear mistress had an opportunity of
arranging our pen for us before putting us in, and also to speak a bit
of her mind to the manager and promoter.
"`The pens are too small, Mr Silk,' she said.
"`Very sorry indeed, madam,' said Mr Silk.
"`Yes, but sorrow will hardly give the poor pussies anymore room.'
"`Then there is no sanitary box of earth placed behind each pen, and
you, Mr Silk, ought to know that a well-trained cat is the most cleanly
animal on earth. Why don't you take a lesson from Mr Cruft?'
"`I'll have that seen to another year.'
"`Thank you, Mr Silk, and now will you have the goodness to send me a
man to sweep out that abominable sawdust from my cat's pen?'
"`The sawdust, madam! Why surely--'
"`I said the sawdust. Nothing worse could be imagined. It gets in the
cat's fur. It gets in their milk, and if they have a morsel of meat,
that also is rolled in it, and they are probably half poisoned.'"
[This, however, was properly arranged at Mr Cruft's great Aquarium Cat
Show of 1894.]
"Having had the sawdust removed, Mrs Rayne put down our pretty
cushions, gave us a little warm milk sweetened with sugar, patted our
mother, and left.
"The judging was over by the time she returned, and she was very pleased
to note, that she had won first prize for the cat and first for the
kittens.
"Mother was half asleep, but we--the kittens--were lively enough and
full of tricks and fun. There was quite a crowd of well-dressed people
around our pen watching our gambols, and so Mrs Rayne was not surprised
to be told soon afterwards by the secretary, that two of her kittens
were claimed at catalogue prices.
"Mrs Rayne sighed. She would just as soon have taken us all home
again, she said.
"Well, my friends, I sigh when I think of my pleasant home with Mrs
Rayne, and I think I see the dear old lady now, with her snow-white hair
and sunny smile. I never saw my country home again, and I never saw my
mistress more. But a cat that I met at a show the other day, and got
conversing with in the evening when all the people had gone, told me
that she had come from Mrs Rayne's cattery, which was now no more, they
having carried the old lady to her grave a year ago. Heigho! there is a
deal of sorrow in this world to cats as well as men.
"Well, at the first show we were all sold to different owners. I never
knew where my brothers and sisters went, but I live in hopes of some day
meeting them at a show.
"That first show was not a well-conducted one, and though it was held at
the Crystal Palace, the cages were placed in a draughty place, and the
pens they told me at another show, to which I was sent afterwards, had
been used for other animals. I don't know how this may be; but I do
know that something was wrong, for nearly a score of cats at that show
caught infectious ailments, which speedily carried them off after they
got home.
"Alas! my friends, I was now to have a new experience and one of a very
painful nature. I had been bought, not by anyone to keep as a pet, but
by a woman--I cannot say lady--who kept cats for profit and profit
alone. She had no love for them, all she expected was to pocket gain by
them.
"My heart sunk when I was taken into this filthy den, for it was nothing
else. It was a room in a small suburban cottage, and contained no less
than twenty cats and kittens of all breeds and ages. Many of these were
confined in cages of the most crampy and filthy kind.
"The poor inmates indeed seemed in a woeful plight.
"I got talking to one of them in an adjoining berth to my own after it
was dark.
"`I suppose,' I said innocently, `I shall soon be taken to a real home?'
"`A real home!' said the silver tabby I had addressed. `Well, you may,
but I very much doubt it. Why, some of us have been in this dismal
prison for three long years, and may be for years and years again,
unless we have the luck to die or to get sold, for escape seems
impossible. We are kept for breeding.'
"`You are well fed, I suppose?'
"`Well fed? Ah! you'll soon know how we are fed. Why, we never get a
change of any kind; it is milk and bread, milk and bread and half-putrid
lumps of horse-flesh from one month's end to another, and never a blade
of grass to cool our blood and to refresh us. And we only have one
little run in the backyard yonder once a day, when mistress happens not
to be busy elsewhere.'
"`Yet, nevertheless,' continued my informant, `mistress is supposed to
be a celebrated breeder, and sometimes a lady arrives at the door of her
cottage and is shown into a nicely-furnished room. She has come most
likely to buy a cat or kitten. We are all kept groomed and ready
always, and not having any exercise, we are moderately plump and fat.
Well, soon after the carriage stops, mistress herself, better dressed
than usual, hurries in and picks up one of us, and takes a brush and
comb and goes rapidly over the coat. Then she enters the best room,
petting and hugging the poor pussy. Ah! well does the cat know that it
is all false affection; but she sings and looks pleasant, the prospect
of leaving this vile den making her happy and hopeful for a time.'
"`And then,' I said, `when a pussy is sold she is taken away in the
carriage to some pretty and refined home, where she will be well cared
for, and have good food and toys, and maybe beautiful children to play
with, and--'
"`Like a dream her life will pass away!'"
"`Ah!' sighed the silver tabby, `would it were so. But it is far often
the reverse.'
"`Indeed!'
"`Yes, and I am going to tell you why. _You see cats like us, that have
been dragged up in a den like this, and without human companionship,
never learn manners. They are never cleanly in their habits, and just
as often thieves as not. So the new purchaser soon finds out her
mistake, and pussy, instead of becoming a parlour pet, is thrust out of
doors, ill-used by the servants, and in time becomes a nomad and helps
to swell the great army of vagrant cats, that commit depredations of
every conceivable sort and render night hideous by their howlings_.'
The sentences I place in italics should be remembered by all who think
of buying a beautiful cat for a companion.
"My young heart sunk when I heard this intelligence, and, alas! I soon
found it was all too true. Yes, my dear Shireen, and more than true,
for not only were all the cats in this great prison-house treated as if
they had been wild beasts, but sometimes even with systematic cruelty.
I myself was soon the subject of this. You see, that having been used
to good food in variety, with plenty of fresh air and exercise, I fell
ill. I could not drink the thin skimmed-milk, and I loathed the high
half-putrid horse-flesh. Then my skin became irritable. So one day my
mistress hauled me out of my cage and slapped me across the head till my
eyes grew almost blind, and I was dizzy.
"`I shall lose by you, confound you,' she cried.
"Then I was taken to a dirty back kitchen and scrubbed, yes, literally
scrubbed with hot water and soap, then roughly dried and put in a cage
near the fire. When half dry I was smeared all over with some
vilely-smelling ointment till I loathed the very smell of myself. After
this I was put in the hospital cage in another room. Here there was a
cat in a worse plight than myself by far.
"She didn't care to talk at all.
"`I'm too sick and ill to speak,' she said. `Besides, I'm going to be
drowned to-night. I do so wish the night was come.'
"I shuddered with horror and fear.
"The night did come, and with it the executioner. He seized my poor
companion and thrust her roughly into a sack, in which I could see there
were some old bricks. Then he tied her up and left the room.
"I got worse instead of better, and there came a day when, from
something in my mistress's eye, I knew that I too was doomed.
"I received no food or drink of any kind that day; my inhuman mistress
no doubt considering it would be mere waste to give meat to a cat she
was going to drown.
"I determined, however, that I would make a struggle for life.
"The day passed wearily by, and how very, very long it did seem to be
sure.
"At last--ah! how my heart did beat--the door of the room opened and the
same horrid ragged man came in. He carried a lantern and a sack with
bricks, just as before.
"I pretended to be asleep.
"He cautiously opened the door.
"In a moment I sprang up, and he speedily withdrew a badly-bitten hand.
Before he could shut me up again I had dashed out and darted from the
room.
"I knew not where to run; but here was a window. I was a powerful
kitten for my age.
"So the window flew into flinders and I was free.
"Yes, I was free. A homeless, wretched nomad. Now some cats are
possessed of the homing instinct, as it is called, in great perfection.
But, alas! I felt none of it, else you may be sure, my friends, I
should have found my way back again speedily enough to Mrs Rayne's.
"But I was free. Oh, how glad even that thought made me.
"The fresh air blew in my face, and I felt better and stronger already.
I glanced up and down the street. Far up one end of it were many
lights, the other was all dark and so I chose that.
"I ran on and on and on, and soon found myself in the country, and tired
at last, I crept into a shed and went to sleep among some clean hay, the
fragrant smell of which seemed to curl round my heart and revive me.
"I was hungry when daylight came, and was lucky enough to find a mouse,
on which I breakfasted, and then went to sleep again.
"It was dark when I awoke, and so I resumed my journey, still going in
the same direction, guided by some instinct to place as great a distance
as possible 'twixt myself and the cat-dealer's den I had escaped from.
"Before daylight I came to a great forest, and being tired, I crept in
under a bush of furze, and, on a warm dry bed, slept long and sweetly.
"I idled about the forest all night--and a lovely moonlit night it was--
finding plenty of food, but seeing no men and no dogs.
"I determined, therefore, to make this forest my home for a time, at all
events; but I must not sleep on the ground, for dogs would be sure to
find me out and worry me. Luckily I found a comfortable shelter half
way up the trunk of a grand old oak, and so I concluded to live here.
And a most perfect shelter I found it to be.
"For many, many months, I could not tell you, my friends, how many, I
lived in this tree, becoming entirely nocturnal in my habits, for when I
ventured out during the day I sometimes saw rough-looking men with dogs,
and was glad to escape into the branches of some oak or beech, where I
sat trembling with fear until they had gone.
"I found plenty of food in the forest, and my drink was the pure soft
water from the purling brooklets. The only thing I ever did long for
was a drop of milk.
"The summer and autumn passed away, and winter came wild and dreary.
The birds no longer sang in the forests, and many had flown south and
away to summer lands beyond the seas. I missed many of my forest
friends too; they had gone away, or had hidden themselves in cosy
corners and gone to sleep for the winter. This kind of long sleep was
denied to me however, and now I often felt cold and wretched, and would
wander for hours through the snow and under the stars or moon, that used
to glimmer down through the leafless branches, and fall in patches of
light on the ground beneath.
"One evening, while wandering thus, I came upon a little country
cottage, and, listening near to the stackyard, I heard the voice of a
young girl raised in song coming from one of the outhouses.
"I crept nearer and nearer, and presently came to the door of the byre,
where the cows were. The girl's song was a very simple and a very sweet
one; but far more sweet to me was the sound of the purling milk as it
fell in rich streams into the pail.
"The temptation to enter was irresistible. But I did not venture too
far in.
"`Oh, what a pretty pussy!' said the girl.
"Her voice re-assured me, and I began to sing. She tried to get me to
come indoors with her, but I was too wild and suspicious for that. Yet
I accompanied her as far as the cottage door, and I even peeped in.
"A cheerful fire of wood was burning on the hearth. How pleasant it
looked! And near it sat an old man smoking, and two pretty children--a
girl and a boy--were playing by the fireside.
"They brought me bread and milk, and I ate it coyly and hungrily. But
when they would have taken me up I ran out again, and once more made for
the forest and for my cold bed in the tree.
"Next night, however, I returned to the cottage, and was treated with
equal kindness; and so for night after night, till the children used to
quite expect me. I allowed them to smooth and pat me now, and sometimes
I went indoors and sat a little by the fire.
"But one dark and stormy evening some dogs and men discovered my tree.
They had traced me by my footprints through the snow.
"It was, however, too late for them to do anything to me that night, but
I knew they would come and rout me out when morning broke, so I made up
my mind now that the forest was no longer safe for me in winter. That
night I left the tree, and wandering away to the cottage, I took shelter
in the outhouse above the room where the cows dwelt.
"Next morning I astonished and delighted the children by appearing among
them to breakfast. I had captured a huge rat, and, bringing it in with
me, I laid it on the hearth to show my prowess. By so doing I quite
ingratiated myself with the old man.
"And so it ended by my taking up my abode with these good people.
"When summer came again I used to go roving in the forest, for a very
delightful life I found it. Nevertheless, I invariably came home in the
evening, and did my best to keep the outhouse clear of rats and the
rooms indoors free from the plague of mice.
"I was a great favourite with this humble family, and many people came
from afar to see the wonderful wild cat as they called me, who had been
tamed by the power of kindness.
"I loved the old man, and used to sit on his knee of an evening, as he
sat and smoked his short clay pipe by the fire; and I loved the children
too, especially little Alfred, the boy who would never go to bed at
night until I was ready to go with him.
"Poor wee fellow, he fell ill at last, and this was the beginning of the
end of life in the grand old forest.
"Alfred died, and they took him away to his long home, and I never saw
him more. But I used often and often in the bright summer days to go
and sit on his little grave and think of him. People said I expected he
would one day come again. Nothing of the sort. Cats know what death
is, and I felt sure that Alfred would never, never come again.
"I knew these people were very, very poor, because one day, when a lady
came to see the wonderful wild cat and took quite a fancy to me and
offered my master a long price, he reluctantly agreed to part with me.
"He sat silent for a long time.
"But I could see the tears silently coursing down his cheeks.
"Then he turned to the lady.
"`Take him, then,' he said, `take him and be good to him. He were my
wee lad's cat like that be dead and gone, but a ten-pun' note's an'
awfu' temptation to poor folks like we, and will get the children many a
little comfort for the comin' winter. Pay the lassie,' he added, `I'll
no touch it.'
"He gave one glance at the fireside, and then went out and stayed away
for hours.
"He could not bear to see me leave."