When the door was shut, the
cat, as soon as she was tired of her confinement, mounted on the sill of
the window, and with her paws dexterously lifted the latch, opened the
door, and came out of the room. This practice she continued for years.
A cat belonging to a monastery in France was still more ingenious. She
was accustomed to have her meals served to her at the same time that the
inmates of the monastery had theirs. These hours were announced by the
ringing of the bell. One day it so happened that Puss was shut up in a
room by herself, when the bell rang for dinner, so that she was not able
to avail herself of the invitation. Some hours afterward she was
released from her confinement, and instantly ran to the spot where
dinner was always left for her; but no dinner was to be found. In the
afternoon the bell was heard ringing at an unusual hour. When the
inmates of the cloister came to see what was the cause of it, they found
the hungry cat clinging to the bell-rope, and setting it in motion as
well as she was able, in order that she might have her dinner served up
for her. Was not this act of the cat the result of something very nearly
related to what we call reason, when exhibited in man?
A French naturalist gives us an amusing incident connected with a cat in
Prussia. This animal was quietly sleeping on the hearth, when one of the
children in the family where she lived set up a boisterous crying.
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