The Domestic Cat

When I was a boy, it used to be a positive pain to me to have to enter a large library and choose a book. I used to wander round and round the well-filled shelves like a butterf...

In the feline world you find no such diversity, of form, shape, disposition, coat, size, etc, as you do in the canine. Dogs differ from each other in both the size and conformat...

The lines of some cats fall in pleasant places. Mine have. I'm the fireside favourite, I'm the parlour pet. I'm the _beau ideal_, so my mistress says, of what every decent, resp...

At nearly all the cat-shows which I have visited of late, I have been invariably impressed with this one idea: here, in these shows, we see pussy as she is in the present day--t...

I'm the dunghill cat--that is what I am. Nobody owns me, and I owe allegiance to nobody. Nobody feeds me; nobody puts a saucer on the ground and says, "Here, pussy, there's a dr...

"He prayeth well, who loveth well, Both man, and bird, and beast; He prayeth best, who loveth best, All things both great and small, For the dear God who loveth us, He made and...

We all know that almost any dog that has lived a reasonable number of years, and isn't a kennel dog, but one of the family, as it were, understands pretty nearly all that is sai...

Before we can thoroughly understand the ways and habits of any animal, we must try, in a manner, to put ourselves in that animal's place, and thus be able to study life from its...

1. _The Pure Black_.--This is one of my pet breeds. The pure black cat is such a noble, gentlemanly fellow, and if well-bred and trained--and he is capable of a very large amoun...

"Throw physic to the dogs," said the immortal William. That was a good many years ago, and dogs then were of very little value, and little used either to physic or good treatmen...

And if the schemes of mice and men often "gang agley," it is not to be wondered at that the sagacity of the domestic cat is sometimes at fault. A very large and beautiful cat, b...

her, all save the head, in a woollen shawl, and then place her in some one else's arms to hold. Now, if it is a pill or small bolus it must be dipped in oil, and placed well dow...

Probably one of the commonest and most distressing of complaints in the cat is _diarrhoea_; and what makes it all the more distressing, is the fact that, instead of receiving sy...

Before going on to speak of the training of youthful pussy, there is one subject which deserves a word or two at least--namely, the humane destruction of cats, when such destruc...

"Ma conscience! mither, it kens its name?" Such was the exclamation of a little ragged and kilted urchin, in the remote Highlands of Argyllshire, as he heard me call my dog to g...

I have been asked to give a few hints as to the best and most useful classification for show purposes, and may as well do so here. For a large show, the classes can hardly be be...

The Blue cat: just one word about this pretty creature before passing on to the Tabbies. Although she is called a blue cat, don't fancy for a moment that ultramarine is anywhere...

"The dignity of life is not impaired By aught which innocently satisfies The humbler cravings of the heart; and he Is still a happier man, who, for the heights Of speculation no...

The classification I propose of the domestic cat is an exceedingly simple one, as I think all classifications ought to be; it will, I trust, however, be found quite sufficient,...

There is hardly a domestic animal we possess that is not fond, to a greater or less extent, of children. How carefully a horse will pick his steps if a child happens to fall amo...

In future chapters I will give the habits and characteristics of the domestic cat in general, with some specialities of a few of the different kinds in particular. The "tricks a...

When I was a little boy at school, floundering through Herodotus, and getting double doses of fum-fum daily for my Anabasis--for my old teacher, when he couldn't get enough Gree...

Not only do cats know sickness in others, but they are acquainted in some way with the mystery of death. Observe a cat, for instance, that has played with a mouse until she has...

Before describing the management and treatment of feline ailments, I may as well mention that there are three different plans usually adopted for giving a cat medicine. Pussy mu...