Of the domestication of the cat we know very little, but it is recorded that a tribe of cats was trained to retrieve--_i.e._ to fetch and carry game. In our own time I have seen many cats fetch and carry corks and newspapers, and on one occasion pounce upon a small roach at the end of a line and place it at its owner's feet. Gamekeepers whom I have known agree that, for cunning, craftiness, and tenacity in attaining an object, the semi-wild cat of the woods shows far superior intelligence to the rest of the woodland denizens. It is quite a usual thing to hear of farm cats entering upon a snake-hunting expedition with the greatest glee, and showing remarkable readiness in pitching upon their quarry and pinning it down until secured. These farm cats are quite a race by themselves. Of decided sporting proclivities, they roam the countryside with considerable fierceness, and yet revert to the domesticity of the farmhouse fireside as though innocent of roving instincts. They are spasmodic to a degree in their mode of life, and apparently work out one mood before entering upon another. It will be remembered that this spasmodic tendency--the true feline independence, by-the-bye--is and has been characteristic of the cat throughout its history, and any one who has tried to overcome it has met with failure.
[Illustration: _Photo by T. Fall_] [_Baker Street._
Most white cats are not albinoes--that is to say, they have ordinarily coloured and not red eyes.]
[Illustration: _Photo by T. Fall_] [_Baker Street._
White cats with blue eyes are generally deaf, or at all events hard of hearing.]
Watch your own cat, and you will see that he will change his sleeping-quarters periodically; and if he can find a newspaper conveniently placed, he will prefer it to lie upon, before anything perhaps, except a cane-bottomed chair, to which all cats are very partial. If you keep a number of cats, as I do, you will find that they are very imitative, and what one gets in the habit of doing they will all do in time: for instance, one of my cats took to sitting with his front paws inside my tall hat and his body outside, and this has become a catty fashion in the family, whether the object be a hat, cap, bonnet, small basket, box, or tin. If by chance one of the cats is attacked by a dog, a peculiar cry from the aggrieved animal will immediately awaken the others out of their lethargy or sleep, and bring them fiercely to the rescue. They are, too, particularly kind and nice to the old cat, and are tolerant only of strange baby kittens and very old cats in the garden as long as they do not interfere with the "catty" subject. The same quality obtains in Spain or Portugal, where a race of scavenging cats exists, which go about in droves or families, and are equal to climbing straight walls, big trees, chimneys, and mountain-sides. Long, lanky, and thin, they are built more on the lines of a greyhound than the ordinary cat, and are more easily trained in tricks than home cats.