Generalship of a Cat.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 28, 10 July 1902, Page 29

Generalship of a Cat.

The mastery of herself which a cat can show, when, having been caught in a position from which there is no escape, she calmly sits down to face out tho t hi eats' of a dog, is a marvellous thing (sa\s a writer in the 'Boston Tiansci ipt '). Everybody has seen a kitten on a street doorstep attacked by a dog 10 times her size, as apparently selfpossessed as if she were in her mistress's lap. If she turns tail and runs down the street she is lost ; tho dog will have a sure advantage of her. Even as it is, if ho could get up courage enough to seize her on the spot he would bo able to make shoi t w ork of her ' You (laic not touch me, and you know it ' is what her position tells the dog But she is intensely on her guard m spite oi ihe an of pi'ift'ct content Her legs, concealed under her fin , aie icady for a spi ing llci claws aie unsheathed Her e,\ es novel mo\e foi an instant Horn the clou As he bounds wildly Horn side to side, barking with comical fury, those glittoi ing eyes of her follow him with the keenest scrutiny If lie plucks up his courage she is leach , she will sell her lifo. deaily. She is watching her chance, and she docs not miss it r l he dog tries Fabian tactics and withdraws a few feet , settling clown on his foiepaws .Just tl.en the sound of a clog's baik m the next strict .itti.uts his c\ cs and cats foi a moment, and when he looks back the kitten is gone ' Jle looks down the stieetand staits wildly in that diiectnm and leaches a high lioaid fence just as a cat's tail— a monstrous tail for such a little cat — is vanishing over the top of it. lie is beaten The cat showed not only more courage than he had, but a great deal men c genei als'hip.