The Book Of Cats | by Charles Henry Ross

A chit-chat chronicle of feline facts and fancies, legendary, lyrical medical, mirthful and miscellaneous.

Title	The Book Of Cats
Author	Charles Henry Ross
Publisher	Griffith & Farran
Year	1868
Copyright	1868, Griffith & Farran
Amazon	The Book Of Cats: A Chit-Chat Chronicle Of Feline Facts And Fancies, Legendary, Lyrical, Medical, Mirthful And Miscellaneous

With Twenty Illustrations by the Author.

Notice

THE Author would thankfully receive any well-authenticated anecdotes respecting Cats, with the view of incorporating them with the work, in the event of a fresh Edition being called for.

Chapter I. Of The Reason Why This Book Was Written, And Of Several Sorts Of Cats Which Are Not Strictly Zoological: ONE day, ever so long ago, it struck me that I should like to try and write a book about Cats. I mentioned the idea to some of my friends: the first burst out laughing at the end of my opening sente...

Chapter II. Of Some Wicked Stories That Have Been Told About Cats: I DO not love a Cat, says a popular author, often quoted; his disposition is mean and suspicious. A friendship of years is cancelled in a moment by an accidental tread on the tail. He spits, twirl...

Of Some Wicked Stories That Have Been Told About Cats. Part 2: No, certainly! replied the lady tartly. Do carve the haunch, Mr.-. The footman held the plate nearer, a due portion of the savoury meat was placed upon it. To Mrs. H-, said the host, and turne...

Of Some Wicked Stories That Have Been Told About Cats. Part 3: He started back, shocked and dismayed, and for a few moments remained gazing on the dreadful spectacle almost paralysed. Then came the speculation who could have done so cruel a deed? An old man murde...

Chapter III. Of Other Wicked Stories, With A Few Words In Defence Of The Accused: I TOLD you a-while ago what good Mr. Mavor says of Cats. La defiance que cet animal inspire, says another instructor of youth, M. Pujoulx, in his Livre du Second Age, est bien propre a corriger d...

Of Other Wicked Stories, With A Few Words In Defence Of The Accused. Part 2: An anonymous writer says: We may learn some useful lessons from Cats, as indeed, from all animals. Agur, in the book of Proverbs, refers to some; and all through Scripture we find animals used as typ...

Of Other Wicked Stories, With A Few Words In Defence Of The Accused. Part 3: Mind did not look upon Cats merely as subjects for art; his liking for them was very great. Once when hydrophobia was raging in Berne, and eight hundred were destroyed in consequence of an order issue...

Of Other Wicked Stories, With A Few Words In Defence Of The Accused. Part 4: Mr. Buckland relates the case of a gamekeeper who bought up all the Cats in the neighbouring town, cut off their heads, and nailed them up as trophies of veritable captures in the woods. In a gamekeep...

Chapter IV. Of The Manners And Customs Of Cats: LET us see though, before we try our anecdotes, what is known of the Cat's peculiarities. I rather like this quaint description of the domestic Pussy, which occurs in an old heraldic book, John Boss...

Of The Manners And Customs Of Cats. Part 2: The lateral movements of the head in Cats are not so extensive as in the owl, but are, nevertheless, considerable. A cat can look round pretty far behind it without moving its body, which might be apt...

Of The Manners And Customs Of Cats. Part 3: The illumination of a Cat's eye in the dark arises from the external light collected on the eye and reflected from it. Although apparently dark, a room is penetrated by imperceptible rays of external ...

Chapter V. Of Whittington's Cat, And Another Cat That Visited Strange Countries: AS no work about Cats could be complete without the story of Dick Whittington, from the first moment I had made up my mind to write this book, I had also made up my mind to look up the best authorit...

Chapter VI. Of Various Kinds Of Cats, Ancient And Modern: NOW, although this is the Book of Cats, do you know I am more that half afraid that if I give you too much about Cats in it, you will go away dissatisfied. Some years ago there was a great rage for ...

Of Various Kinds Of Cats, Ancient And Modern. Part 2: A Cat caught in a trap is a dangerous customer to let loose again. If the door be opened incautiously, the Cat will probably fly at the catcher's face the moment she sees the light. The only safe way ...

Of Various Kinds Of Cats, Ancient And Modern. Part 3: In Abyssinia, Cats are so valuable, that a marriageable girl who is likely to come in for a Cat, is looked upon as quite an heiress. The resemblance between the Tiger and the Cat is so striking, that...

Chapter VII. Of Some Clever Cats: THIS domestic animal, as Dr. Johnson puts it, that catches mice, can do many other things when it has a fair opportunity of distinguishing itself. It is difficult, but by no means impossible, to t...

Of Some Clever Cats. Part 2: A woman was murdered at Lyons, and when the body was found weltering in blood, a large white Cat was seen mounted on the cornice of a cupboard. He sat motionless, his eyes fixed on the corpse, and his...

Of Some Clever Cats. Part 3: Just before the earthquake at Messina, a merchant of that town noticed that his Cats were scratching at the door of his room, in a state of great excitement. He opened the door for them, and they flew...

Of Some Clever Cats. Part 4: In 1819 a favourite Tabby belonging to a shipmaster was left on shore, by accident, while his vessel sailed from the harbour of Aberdour, Fife-shire, which is about half a mile from the village. The v...

Of Some Clever Cats. Part 5: She disliked music of all kinds, but bore a special antipathy to barrel organs; probably because the costume of the organ-grinder was as unpleasing to her eyes, as his doleful sounds were to her ears....

Chapter VIII. Of Some Amiable Cats, And Cats That Have Been Good Mothers: Cat And Dog Life. TO lead a Cat and Dog life means a good deal of scratching and biting; but Dogs and Cats have been known to get on very amiably before now. There was a Cat which had formed a...

Of Some Amiable Cats, And Cats That Have Been Good Mothers. Part 2: Miss Pussy or her babies, there would be a fight. Now a Monkey is always very fond of anything young, such as a kitten, and he and Miss Pussy would want to nurse the children. The Monkey liked very mu...

Of Some Amiable Cats, And Cats That Have Been Good Mothers. Part 3: The following instance of maternal courage and affection is recorded in the Naturalists' Cabinet: A Cat that had a numerous brood of kittens, encouraged her little ones to frolic one summer day in th...

Chapter IX. Of Puss In Proverbs, In The Dark Ages, And In The Company Of Wicked Old Women: THESE are some of the best known Proverbs about Cats: -Care will kill a Cat, one says, and yet Cats are said to have nine lives. Let us hope that poor Pussy will never be put to a worse death. A ...

Of Puss In Proverbs, In The Dark Ages, And In The Company Of Wicked Old Women. Part 2: In an old-fashioned treatise upon Rat-catching, I find mentioned a means of alluring of very material efficacy, which is, the use of oil of Rhodium, which, like the marumlyriacum, in the case of Cats...

Of Puss In Proverbs, In The Dark Ages, In The Company Of Wicked Old Women. Part 3: This swimming experiment, which was deemed a full proof of guilt if any one subjected to it did not sink, but floated on the surface of the water, was one of the ordeals especially recommended by our ...

Of Puss In Proverbs, In The Dark Ages, In Company Of Wicked Old Women. Part 4: Dr. Harsenet, Archbishop of York, in his Declaration of Popish Impostures, says, Out of those is shap'd us the true idea of a witch, an old weather-beaten crone, having her chin and knees meeting for...

Chapter X. Of A Certain Voracious Cat, Some Goblin Cats, Magical Cats, And Cats Of Kilkenny: OF all the great big stories that have been told of Cats, that which describes the origin of Cat's-head apples is surely the greatest biggest one. The legend runs thus: The Widow Tomkins had a back...

Of A Certain Voracious Cat, Some Goblin Cats, Magical Cats, And Cats Of Kilkenny. Part 2: Of course this tale was false. The money existed where Tom had described, but it had been ill-gotten gold, with a curse upon it. But the wizard nibbled at the bait, put a chain round Tom's neck, and ...

Of A Certain Voracious Cat, Goblin Cats, Magical Cats, And Cats Of Kilkenny. Part 3: Then the three Princes started on the journey; but it is of the youngest of the three that I have now to tell. He travelled for many days, and at last found himself, one evening, at the door of a sple...

Of A Certain Voracious Cat, Some Goblin Cats, Magical Cats, Cats Of Kilkenny. Part 4: Let this be as it may, one thing is certain: Kilkenny Cats are quite as amiable now-a-days as the Cats of any other city in Great Britain. But there is another story of a great Cat fight in the same ...

Chapter XI. Of Pussy Poorly, And Of Some Curiosities Of The Cats'-Meat Trade: So sickly Cats neglect their fur attire, And sit and mope beside the kitchen fire. Bombastes Furioso. A WRITER on Cats, when speaking of the necessity of administering physic in certain cases, s...

Of Pussy Poorly, And Of Some Curiosities Of The Cats'-Meat Trade. Part 2: There is a disease resembling the chicken-pox, which appears in the shape of eruptions upon a Cat's head and throat. It is, in these cases, advisable to rub the bad places with flour of brimstone mixe...

Of Pussy Poorly, And Of Some Curiosities Of The Cats'-Meat Trade. Part 3: In giving a Cat the scrapings of dirty plates, it is as well, if you value the animal's life, to remove the fish bones, should there be any among the leavings. Very frequently, as most Cats bolt their...

Of Pussy Poorly, And Of Some Curiosities Of The Cats'-Meat Trade. Part 4: 'There is not near half so many Dogs as Cats; I must know, for they all knows me, and I serves about 200 Cats and 70 dogs. Mine's a middling trade, but some does far better. Some Cats has a hap'orth ...

Chapter XII. Of Wild Cats, Cat Charming, Etc: WITHOUT entering into any very lengthened details, I will here make room for a few natural history notes, collected from various sources:The Cat belongs to the same family as the lion, tiger, panthe...

Of Wild Cats, Cat Charming, Etc. Part 2: The colour of the wild Cat is more uniform than that of the domestic species. On a ground colour of pale reddish-yellow are dark streaks extending over the body and limbs, forming pretty much the sort...

Of Wild Cats, Cat Charming, Etc. Part 3: The wild Cat of Ireland would seem to be quite as savage a fellow as his Scotch cousin. In Maxwell's Wild Sports of the West is a story of one of these animals, which was killed after a severe battl...

Of Wild Cats, Cat Charming, Etc. Part 4: Cat, till I had aroused that lazy animal to a state of extreme irritability. This sport, after a while, grew tame, so I shifted the string, and allowed it to dangle within an inch of my host's feet. R...

Of Wild Cats, Cat Charming, Etc. Part 5: The Chinese, it seems, says another writer, learn the hour of the day by looking into the eyes of their Cats; but I imagine that if Cats could speak Chinese, they would tell us, not only what o'clo...

Of Wild Cats, Cat Charming, Etc. Part 6: One morning there was discovered in the shed, not only a strange Cat, but a strange Kitten, with its eyes open, plump, and about a fortnight old. The strange Cat made no attempt to stir when the maid...

Of Wild Cats, Cat Charming, Etc. Part 7: What, think you, I would bee? Not Fish, nor Foule, nor Fle, nor Frog, Nor Squirril on the Tree; The Fish the Hooke, the Foule The lymed Twig doth catch, The Fle the Finger, and the Frog The Bustard...

Of Wild Cats, Cat Charming, Etc. Part 8: With respect to Pussy's mouse-catching qualities, etc., a writer in a periodical says: Most persons have heard of the beautiful contrivance by which the claws of these animals are preserved constantl...

Chapter XIII. Cats: MENTION has already been made of a Cat concert in Paris, but we should not forget that we once had an English actor of the name of Harris, who took part in the entertainments given by Foote at the ...

Cats. Part 2: In James's Military Dictionary, the cat, etc., is described as a whip with nine knotted cords, with which the public soldiers and sailors are punished. Sometimes it has only five cords. The followi...

Cats. Part 3: I need not tell a kind master or mistress to use every precaution when drowning a Cat's kittens, to keep their mother in ignorance of the fact. It can easily be imagined that the poor creature will be...

Cats. Part 4: The latter case, however, is rather rare I should think. When Pussy's good master and mistress die, the wide world is often enough left for it to roam in at its will, seeking its living as it can - a ...

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The Book Of Cats | by Charles Henry Ross

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