The Great Small Cat, and Others: Seven Tales

Part 1

Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Italic text is denoted by underscores.

THE GREAT SMALL CAT AND OTHERS

He Was Probably a Graceless Vagabond, Born in the Gutter, With no Pretensions to Breeding or Even Good Looks]

THE GREAT SMALL CAT AND OTHERS Seven Tales

BY MAY E. SOUTHWORTH

ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND DECORATED BY PEDRO J. LEMOS

PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS SAN FRANCISCO

Copyright, 1914 PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO

IN LOVING MEMORY OF THURSDAY MY OWN

INTRODUCTION

Everyone knows that there are all kinds of people; also there are all kinds of cats, worthy and unworthy. No two are exactly alike, and by those who do not class them in a bunch, but study them as individuals, they are found to have decided characteristics all their own, ever presenting strange surprises in a mixture of the unexpected higher qualities of civilization and the evils of lowest barbarism. The appeal of the kitten is almost universal, as there are few men, women or children, even those who "shudder" at a real cat, who can resist the subtle charm of these fuzzy lumps of playfulness. But cats, the alley cat, your cat, my cat, anybody's cat, all cats are in need of some brave champion, someone who will endeavor to portray their better side and be able to so increase for them the appreciation of mankind that they will come to what is only rightfully their own. Whatever your faith or practice may be touching cats, you are bound to admit that they must surely have some kind of mission here on earth. The trend of modern beneficence shows the day of even the cat is on the way, the day when they shall be better understood, making the world kinder to them in recognizing that these often sadly abused little creatures, have the feelings common to flesh and blood and are times without number, actuated by human thoughts and impulses. Recent years have done much in the way of atonement for persistent error in regard to their nature, by thrusting upon them a balance long their due in the form of many happy literary tributes, proving, in spite of much withering scorn, that environment has much more to do with their lack of worth than has original sin.

The lowly state of the average cat, just tolerated for its usefulness as a natural rat executioner, is unworthy of its better capabilities, and to the heart of a lover of the species, a cruelty. It is companionship which counts the most with cats, and when, instead of being a comfortable family institution as was intended, their nature being of the warmest and most sociable kind, they are mercilessly relegated to the cold cellar or outhouse to battle for life and sustenance, they are more miserable than anyone can imagine who does not know how a cat longs for home life and company. If left in this way to struggle for a meager existence, without a word of kindness, and chased for their very lives if they presume, in their lonely longing, to timidly enter the family refinement, is it a wonder that under these conditions, these dwellers in solitude develop only the worse and uglier traits in their disposition?

Although cats are brimful of human whims and moods and are also very human in their devotion to home, order and cleanliness, they are decidedly slow in attaching themselves to humans and not quick to give them their friendship. Unlike a dog, they maintain a rather haughty independence in the matter of reciprocity, and after they have decided that you are worthy of the honor of their confidence, and they have given it, it can only be retained by constant entreaty and on the strictest terms of obligation, never forced. To know something of the queer brain and really glowing heart beneath the mystery of their graceful furry coats, a heart which they guard almost fiercely against mere "curious" intimacy, it is necessary to make an effort; but as every cat lover knows, they will surely repay such effort in lavish response. And above all, in trying to get acquainted with cats, show them the compliment of companionship which they truly and cordially appreciate, for they, too, are in various ways "also human" and their readiness to respond to intimacy of this kind is a most gratifying surprise to the skeptical.

The cat tails spring up in the hollow But where can their late owners be? The tale of their tails does not follow When cat tails spring up in the hollow. But the stream many secrets must swallow So it may be their ghosts that we see. So when cat tails spring up in the hollow We surmise where their owners may be.

Thomas Grant Springer

THE TALES IN THIS BOOK

PAGE

THE GREAT SMALL CAT 3

The tale of the black "stray," whose mother-love and home-love steeled her to repeatedly brave the waters of the dark, swift-flowing river, and how this "bunch hard to beat" overcame the cold heart of the "widow lady" of the ranch.

THURSDAY 27

The orphan foundling, fed from a spoon; her coquettish tyranny over her friend and playmate, a magnificent Irish setter; and the story of her tragic end when answering the home-call.

A MINE, A MINER, AND A CAT 43

The story of the loyal comradeship of the miner and the cat, and of how Puss proved to be the cleverer prospector of the two and discovered the bonanza mine.

AÏDA AND SAADI 61

Twin blue-blooded aristocrats, whose temperamental pranks and mischievous adventures caused startling surprises and frequent shocks; their marauding, murderous transgressions and how they were finally cured.

MAROONED 77

Part 2

The story of the intense hatred of the shanghaied cat; his dignified aloofness; his "tabasco temper" over the pranks of the sailors; and his final survival of the wreck, from which, after braving the ocean waves, he reached the shore and gained his freedom amid the mystery of the wild.

MAIDA 99

The strange but true story of the Maltese mother-cat who adopted a brood of white rats, and the record of her disciplinary methods in raising and controlling her alien foster-children.

A MEMORY 109

The tale of Jiminy Christmas, a tramp cat, whose wild and vagabond nature caused him to yield, intermittently, to the call of the open, and to leave, unceremoniously, his protected home of plenty and comfort; his last pathetic return.

THE PICTURES IN THIS BOOK

JIMINY CHRISTMAS: HIS FIRST APPEARANCE Frontispiece

He was probably a graceless vagabond, born in the gutter, with no pretensions to breeding or even good looks.

FACING PAGE

THE GREAT SMALL CAT 8

Although the small stray was minus all signs of pedigree, she held her head high and was accorded the respect and good treatment due a lady.

THURSDAY 34

As she never attained the full stature of an ordinary cat, she always looked but half-grown, but was the very perfection of dainty symmetry, her coat a solid black, almost blue in its depths.

THE CAT 52

Handsome, shining and saucy, the kitten had grown into the most splendid bigness of his race: all muscle and nerve, unusually broad of chest and looking as if bred to the mountain fastness and able to endure all sorts of pioneer hardships.

AÏDA AND SAADI 72

"Oh, lady! You do not suspect us of having seen any of your birds this morning?"

MAROONED 84

Neither disappointment nor ugly temper had broken his fierce sense of injury or his indomitable spirit.

MAIDA 102

In long-suffering patience Maida would stretch herself in a streak of sunshine and survey the riotously incorrigible mites, indulging in their favorite pastime of playing tag all over her body.

JIMINY CHRISTMAS, THE FREE SPIRIT 120

Born free, he kept his own wanton will free from enslavement to the end, living his own life in honor and honesty in an out-doors all his own.

THE GREAT SMALL CAT

Once upon a time, a while ago, during pleasant hours spent in the "land of big cows and small horses," I met one of the most modest of black mother cats, but one with such a pathetic experience in her life as to make her stand alone, not as a cat, but as the cat. At any rate, the story as told by the young ranchman is absolutely true and surely worth the telling, if only to prove that cats are singularly human in their love for their offspring, and are all mother in sacrifice and thoughtful care, giving life itself if necessary in unselfish devotion.

The cat was small, bright-eyed and clean but apparently of the most commonplace and ordinary variety, and not distinguished by any special attractiveness as to species. Still, on hearing the "story of her life" as related by this man, one of her most faithful benefactors, of how she cheated fate and battled with fear and death, conquering every natural antipathy, it made one feel that it was an event to meet her. To encounter such a plain unassuming little creature who had given positive proof of harboring in her small head the brain of a diplomat and of being so surprisingly shrewd, and so gloriously fearless, was an incident of such stirring revelation as to make it of marked consequence.

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