THE CAT

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.

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