In this chapter on pets, I regret exceedingly that I cannot say much in favour of the family cat.  Like nearly all children, I was brought up to love kittens and to admire their playful, cunning ways.  When a kitten becomes a cat my love for it ceases.  Cats will do so many mean, dishonourable things, and will catch so many song birds and so few rats and mice that it simply has become a question whether we shall like the song birds or the cat.  So many people do like cats that it is unfair perhaps to condemn the whole race for the misdeeds of a few.  If a cat is carefully watched or if we put a bell on its neck, these precautions will to a certain extent keep the cat from catching birds, but most people have something better to do than to act as guardian for a cat.  The fact is that a cat is a stupid animal seldom showing any real affection or loyalty for its owner and possessing but little intelligence.  It is very difficult to teach a cat even the simplest tricks.  We never know when a cat will turn on its best friend.  They have the “tiger” instinct of treachery.  A cat which one minute is contentedly purring on our lap may sink its claws into us the next.

The only way to force a cat to catch mice is to keep it half starved.  Then instead of catching mice, it will probably go after birds if there are any in the neighbourhood.  I have shut a cat up in a room with a mouse and it is doubtful whether the cat or the mouse were the more frightened.  The cat does more damage to the song birds of this country than any other enemy they have.  If kept at home and well fed, cats sometimes become so fat and stupid that they will not molest birds but this is due to laziness and not to any good qualities in the cat.  In normal condition they are natural hunters.

The habits of a cat are unclean, its unearthly cries at night are extremely disagreeable and altogether it is a nuisance.  A famous naturalist, Shaler, once said “A cat is the only animal that has been tolerated, esteemed and at times worshipped without having a single distinctly valuable quality.”

A few years ago a quail had a nest under a rock opposite my house.  Quail raise their young like poultry rather than like robins or wrens or the other song birds.  As soon as the tiny quail chicks are hatched, the mother takes them around like a hen with a brood of chickens.  This mother quail was my especial care and study.  She became so tame that I could feed her.  Finally she hatched out ten tiny brown balls of feathers.  Our cat had been watching her, too, but not from the same motives and one day the cat came home with the mother quail in her mouth.  She ran under the porch just out of reach and calmly ate it.  The little brood were too small to look out for themselves so of course they all died or fell an easy victim to other cats.  The mother was probably an easy prey because in guarding the young, a quail will pretend to have a broken wing and struggle along to attract attention to her and away from her little ones, who scurry to high grass for safety.  I have never been very friendly to cats since I witnessed this episode.