Part 1 (1/2)

The Adventures of a Cat

by Alfred Elwes

PREFACE

In selecting the biography of another animal from the Archives of Caneville, for the entertainht I could not do better than fix upon ”The Cat;” and as the celebrated Miss Minette Gattina, the historian of poor Job, had bequeathed some of her own memoirs to her native City, furnished, too, with an Introduction by herself, I at once seized upon the materials thus afforded me, and converted them into their present form I know not whether they will enjoy the saned to accord to the veracious story of ”A Bear,” or the si” Time will shohether these true memoirs will be as attractive to youthful readers as the other tales of the feline race, from time immemorial such standard favourites; whether they will have even a chance of success, after the story of that strong-norant, and made her own and master's fortune in a pair of top-boots; or that other famous tabby,[1] so intiton, whose powers of leading her proprietor to wealth were no less remarkable

I count as but of little h it often charht and beautiful, and the Golden Age appeared no ry with h char that the said ”White Cat” was no Puss after all, but a very free and easy young lady in disguise

My Caneville pussy is at least a true one From the respect in which she appears to have been held in her place of birth, and from the attention which seereat animals of Caneville, there is every reason to believe that the scenes she describes were real; for it was a weakness of the Dons in that farant favour where it was merited, and never to associate with those whose moral character was not above suspicion

With these preliminary remarks, I leave Miss Minette to tell her own story That no one was ed fro with her to relate it to a crowd of ad listeners, whom the fame of her beauty, adventures, and with attracted to her dwelling; and though the comments which were made and the questions asked by one or other of the auditory, thy one, the written memoirs, from which this tale has been translated, may be considered the pith, the marrow, as it were, of her ”household narrative”

A E

_King's Arate Street, London_

INTRODUCTION

I was about to address my readers with the usual phrase, that ”at the request of friends” I had collected the scattered memorials of the chief events ofworld, in the hope that soht be learnt from them, which could be useful to the inexperienced when similarly situated But I will be more candid, and say rather, that ”to please myself” I have put into a complete form the recollections in question; not however without the wish that they , and other kind There never was a life spent in this world but that its history could teach a lesson; for, though every life has peculiarities of its own, and may be varied in a thousand ways, the wishes, the resolutions of e, nor does it require a very extensive circle to liine that vanity alone has induced me to record her ence of all anie of Caneville, so, try to remove fronorant of the finer feelings, oblivious of gratitude_, incapable of strong attachments, and so uncertain in her temper as to scratch and bite even, onethe moment before I wished to prove that the saood with our race as with every other; that soh, loveable, cruel, tender-hearted, and ferocious, just as other beasts that wear a tail or come into the world without one; and that this teed, by education and treatment, precisely as the dispositions of other ani done to our race to exclaim, as many do, that ”Cats have no attach fierceness in their hearts, which hness or ill treatment, a thousand benefits which they may have formerly received” I deny it wholly I, a Cat, affir or more tender Look at the care which a respectable ! Can any s? Will any show greater willingness to forego her own occupations, in order to fondle and descend to be the playe to defend theive way to a little expression of feeling when her tail is trodden upon or pulled, or be betrayed into an angry grohen her territory is invaded, what then? You would not have her show so little spirit as to receive every insult unnoticed, or return a quiet ”thank you” for the pain, physical or moral, which has been inflicted on her Hoould _you_, dear reader, act if _your_ tail antonly pulled, or if _your_ house were to be entered by an ugly stranger without invitation?

We e in many a sly joke at their stupidity ”What can be more absurd,” we say, ”than that habit of theirs of constantly playing at 'followthereeable situations in consequence?” But are we any better ourselves? Are not _we_ always following so in crowds hither and thither because so-and-so are running there too? And thus it is that _opinions_, once uttered by soreat animal in authority, are taken up and repeated by his imitators, and are looked on as the very essence of wisdom, while they are often, in fact, no other, when examined, than untrue or mischievously unjust Such are the pet sentences I have alluded to, wherein Cats are described: a whole race is sometimes condemned because a few ets a bad name because some animal of influence, a Jackass perhaps, brays out that ”they are _all_ worthless”

It has been often observed, and I therefore do not profess to utter an original idea by reain, that when our prejudices are enlisted in favour of or against any object, every circue or the reverse If we have done an animal a kindness, we are ready to do him another; if we have inflicted on him any injury, we are not at all indisposed to add a fresh one to it And so it has happened that our nu been by many ill treated, are constantly exposed to kicks and insult from those same parties, for no other reason than that they have kicked and insulted us before The meekness of our disposition has been distorted into hypocrisy; our quiet has been called ”meditative treachery;” and our natural and innocent instincts have been styled ”the proofs of a sanguinary temperament” Our every look has been perverted by our enemies into away have been set down as the strongest marks of a Jesuitical heart In fact, in the eyes ofwe can do, no step we can take, but is considered evidence of our wicked disposition; and we are not unfrequently loaded with abuse for the very things for which beasts that have a better naet love and coht the perusal of these few pages would induce any one to pause and reflect before conde any one animal! And here I do not refer to e; whether the Lion, creating a sensation in the class to which he belongs, or the ass, laughed at for his stupidity in the circle to which his position in life assigns hied differently if differently situated: were the Lion and the ass, by soe places, the stupidity of the latter would be set down as wit, and his every saying would be applauded; whilst the Lion, instead of being looked on as the perfection of nobleness and beauty, would be styled a surly brute, and considered at the best no better than a bore

I think I hear some of my readers exclaim, ”Who is this old Cat, forsooth, that she should thus presu'upon her that she should insist on swelling her tale in so outrageous a s to a stop

My as to meet my readers with a friendly rub;Above all, h a Cat, and no longer young,--though no uishedon my form,--my heart still beats warmly, tenderly, and without envy, and would feel no coht it had not dwelt in this earthly abode in vain

[Illustration: A JUVENILE PARTY]

KITTENHOOD

There is nothing like beginning at the very cohly understood; at least, _I_ think so; and, as I wish _ible, in order that itto others, I shall at least act up to ,--Inow a Cat of so howin company with a brother and three sisters

We were all declared to be ”the prettiest little darlings that ever were seen;” but as the old Puss who ht of every fresh Kitten she beheld, and she was accustomed to see ten or twelve new ones every week, the observation is no proof of our being very char or very beautiful