There has been no contention in the family
since."
It must be a very difficult thing for a cat, when a tame bird is within
her reach, to resist the temptation to make a dinner from it. But there
are not wanting instances in which this disposition has been entirely
overcome. More than this: a cat has been known to become the protector
of a bird, when it was in danger. A lady had a tame canary, which she
was in the habit of letting out of its cage every day. One morning, as
it was picking crumbs of bread off the carpet, her cat, who had always
before showed the bird the utmost kindness, seized it suddenly, and
jumped with it in her mouth upon a table. The lady was much alarmed for
the fate of her favorite; but on turning about, she instantly perceived
the cause. The door had been left open, and another cat, a stranger, had
just come into the room! After the lady turned out the neighbor, her own
cat came down from the table, and dropped the bird, without doing it the
smallest injury.
The following story was told me by my friend Dr. Alcott: A cat, in
Northborough, Mass., with three very young kittens, having been removed
to Shrewsbury, a distance of about four miles, continued to elude the
vigilance of her mistress, and, during the hours of sleep, to transport
these three kittens to their old mansion in Northborough.
Here is a story about a cat who was for some time supposed to be a
musical ghost: A family residing a few miles from Aberdeen, Scotland--so
says the Aberdeen Herald--and at the time consisting of females, were
recently thrown for one or two successive nights into no small
consternation, by the unaccountable circumstance of a piano being set a
strumming about midnight, after all the inmates of the house were in
bed.
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