Edward Kay Robinson

“ We are just as ignorant as the cat about the reasons why we do certain things to show pleasure or goodwill. Why do we smile at a friend and frown at an enemy? Why not frown for friendship and smile in anger? Why do our men merely shake hands to express good feeling, whereas our women and children and foreign men of many nations kiss each other?
For the meaning of all these things, so with the tail-wagging of the dog, the purring of the cat, and our own hair standing on end when we are badly frightened, we must go back to the habits of our ancestors of long ago. ”

“ He was rehearsing the happiest possible experience in a wild cat's life, when it had stalked and killed some large creature and was drinking its blood. Puss on the hearthrug may never have killed anything bigger than a mouse, but the old instinct still works. ”

“ A question which everyone asks, but nobody answers, is why does a cat purr when she is happy and at the came time often squeeze the hearthrug with her claws?
Now, in puzzling out these native questions, you have to do a little Sherlock-Holmes business.
Because all kittens purr and squeeze the hearthrug naturally soon after they are born, you know it must be a habit inherited from their ancestors; and because all kinds of cats do it, the habit must have belonged to the original wild ancestors of all kinds of cats. ”