Siamese cat

“ The royal Siamese cat is fawn-colored, with blue eyes and small head; the Carthusian or blue cat has long, dark, grayish-blue fur, with black [248] lips and soles; the Angora, or Persian cat is large, fine furred, generally white, tending to yellow or gray, and possibly derived from an Asiatic species. The Malay cat, in Pegu, Siam, and Burma, has a tail only half the normal length; the Manx cat of the Isle of Man is tailless and has longer hind-legs. A fine all-blue cat comes from Russia and Iceland, and there are characteristic breeds from India, Abyssinia, and other parts of the world. ”

“ SIAMESE CAT.
Among the beautiful varieties of the domestic cat brought into notice by the cat shows, none deserve more attention than "The Royal Cat of Siam." In form, colour, texture, and length, or rather shortness of its coat, it is widely different from other short-haired varieties; yet there is but little difference in its mode of life or habit. I have not had the pleasure of owning one of this breed, though when on a visit to Lady Dorothy Nevill, at Dangstein, near Petersfield, I had several opportunities for observation. ”

“ The blue eyes and the white coat of the kitten indicate that the Siamese breed is a semi-albino, which when adult tends towards melanism, such a combination of characters being apparently unknown in any other animal. If the frequent presence of a kink in the tail be an inherent feature, the breed is evidently related to the other kink-tailed Malay cats which, as already stated, have a cry differing from that of European cats. Should this be so, then if the ordinary Malay cats are the descendants of the jungle-cat, we shall have to assign the same ancestry to the Siamese breed. ”

“ The solid gray cat is very rare. It is, in fact, a tabby without the black stripes or spots.
In Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea there used to be no cat of any kind. The Siamese cat has been imported to Australia, and some authorities claim that the cats known in this country as Australian cats are of Siamese origin. Madagascar is a catless region. ”

“ We have never succeeded in breeding any like our [76] chocolate cat; they all come fawn, with black or dark brown points; the last family are a little darker on their backs, which gives them a richer appearance than the pale fawn. Hitherto we have never had any half-bred Siamese; but there used to be a male Siamese at Hurworth-on-Tees, and there were many young bred from English cats. They invariably showed the Siamese cross in the ground colour. ”

“ Laura Holborrow. Can't you help us buy a Siamese cat this afternoon? We pick up the A. B. at your hotel, four o clock.
"You'll come?" said Borkman, who seemed to have grasped the situation completely. He gave the young man a benignant smile, and the faintest flutter of a wink,—at once impudent and paternal. "That's good. The ladies will be pleased, eh?" He rose with the air of one who ends an audience. ”

“ Notwithstanding the blueness of their blood, and the princely seclusion in which they have lived for centuries, Siamese cats are ardent mousers, and love the pleasures of the chase as well as any stable-born animal, bred to the sport from tenderest kittenhood. ”

“ How should there be a cat? See, there was nothing in this shop—
"Five dollars," cried Owen. "Come! Hurry!"
The Pinwallah of Calcutta reconsidered the possibilities. Perhaps his neighbor Nabook had seen the cat, perhaps stolen one, for Nabook was a bad man. He would go see. Ten dollars, however, would hardly make Nabook restore any possible cat—
But just then, while Owen fumed, he heard a thin, silvery jingle within. "Oh, zoolum!" cried the shopkeeper: what violence and stronghand! for Owen had shoved him aside, plunged through the smoke, and torn open the door of the inner chamber. ”

“ The laughter rose to a cackle when Owen, gaining, stooped and snatched, to miss by a hand's-breadth, while Chao Phya again hoisted tail and loped away in terror.
The chase spread merriment thus for a furlong or two, the cat loitering and spurting with diabolic humour. Even British blue-jackets, racing their rickshaws against each other, cheering, and flogging the coolies with their canvas hats, found time to grin, wave passing encouragement, or shout satirical advice: "Stern chase, guvnor!" ... "Ooray!" ... "Salt on 'er tail!" ... "Stole away!" ... ”

“ Every day the cat seemed to his master to grow handsomer and handsomer. The old gentleman never loved anything but himself, but he began to take a sort of interest in the strange cat, and to wonder what sort it was—if it was a Persian or a Siamese, or some curious new sort of which he had never heard. ”

“ THE LADY FROM MAURITIUS At breakfast, the captain's presence forbade explanation; and three times in the shore-going sampan, Aunt Julia herself forbade it in good set terms. Clasping Chao Phya beside her on the thwart, she sat as upright as her parasol.
"But I must tell you," urged Owen desperately. "You don't know the risk. That cat's collar has a—"
"Our luggage is all that I need trouble you about," she interrupted, frowning. "Please understand, Mr. Scarlett, that unless this silly and unfortunate subject is dropped, I shall be seriously displeased." ”

“ Their ship was to sail next morning; Aunt Julia was despatching a multitude of letters; they had shared half the bright day. He had unfolded the full history of Chao Phya and the lost ruby of Burmah; the cat himself now trotted with them along the Quai François Joseph, as they gave him, with fluctuating success, his first lesson in following to heel; nothing remained for Owen but to tell his own story: yet the sun was drawing down behind Lake Menzaleh, and still their talk idled in generalities. Never, of any one in his life before, had he been so afraid. ”

“ Hammond are extremely fond of their unusual and valuable cat family,—and tell the most interesting tales of their antics and habits. His Columbia was an imported cat, and the doctor has reason to believe that she with her mate are originally from the Siamese cat imported from Siam to Australia. They are all very delicate as kittens, the mother rarely having more than one at a time. With two exceptions, these cats have never had more than two kittens at a litter. They are very partial to heat, but cannot stand cold weather. ”

“ One tall Chinaman, who had looked feverishly intent, turned about tactfully to await the renewal of the bargain, presenting an oily brown back.
"Hallo," said Owen. "See that, Miss Holborow."
Between the muscular shoulder-blades, in Siamese fashion, was tattooed a circular design in blue.
"An old friend, isn't it?" continued Scarlett. "The symbol of Creation, the Dual Powers—two whales rolled together to form the world—as you see them on the Korean flag, the Madura praus, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and everywhere. He's not a Hoi-how boy."
The pawnbroker suddenly resumed the chaffering. ”

“ Scarlett is afraid, I'll buy him on my own responsibility, and you can get him from me whenever you like, Miss Holborow."
He had drawn himself up tall, a bearded protector of ladies.
"He's the boy to carry cats," whispered Laura to Owen, behind Aunt Julia's back. Borkman caught the buzz of the whisper, and for a second his eye gleamed with an odd suspicion. Then he repeated, amiably—"It's quite safe."
"The whole affair is absurd," said Aunt Julia. "We have too much stuff already. A cat is a—a beast." ”

“ Chao Phya's possessor noted the movement, and his surly eyes brightened.
"I'm willin to sell," he admitted. "But this cat—w'y, this old chum an me, we wouldn't part under five pound—no, nor under fifty dollars!"
Scarlett could contain himself no longer.
"You'll part with him for nothing," he said angrily. "Will you give him up without trouble, or do you want to fight for him?"
Open-mouthed stupour fell on the company. Then, to Owen's surprise, all hands laughed uproariously.
"Cert'nly, mate," replied the sailor, with an obliging air. "That's a fair offer. I'd fight you for less." ”

“ I am overjoyed to think that you are bringing back old Chao Phya. You cannot imagine our surprise when you went plunging down the gang-plank to rescue him.... Aunt Julia still thinks that every one had gone mad after the cat. We are both consumed to hear what it was all about, and why they locked you up and chased you, and whether they killed that poor wretched Borkman, and what your despatch means by 'Collar had ruby, now lost.' I have invented wild romances to explain it all. ”

“ The sailor stirred, rolled over, and with a heave of white shoulders, sat up, grinning, dazed and sheepish.
"I give ye best man," he announced to the general world. Catching Owen's eye, he nodded, feebly but amiably. "If I'd kept off the drink this week past, p'raps ye wouldn't be, guvnor. 'E's your cat."
Scarlett would have snatched the prize and run; but a late comer from the docks had seen the ship leave half an hour before. Laura was gone; his new acquaintances thronged about him, with artless compliments ”

“ Zat is a miss-take. You must pardon me. My home is not long in Singapore, but many years in Mauritius. I spik ze English tongue so ver' badly. But see. I vould not haf said—'Haf you ze cat?' I vould say 'Vill you ze cat?' Zat is it. ”

“ I may add that we lately have had four kittens from the chocolate cat by a pure dun Siamese he-cat. All the young are dun coloured, and when born were very light, nearly white, but are gradually getting the dark points of the parents; in fact, I expect that one will turn chocolate. The cats are very affectionate, and make charming ladies' pets, but are rather more delicate than our cats, but after they have once wintered in England they seem to get acclimatised. ”

“ A beautiful pair of blacks in Mrs. Locke's cattery have the most desirable shade of amber eyes, and are named "Blackbird" and "St. Tudno"; she has also a choice pair of Siamese cats called "Siam" and "Sally Ward."
Mrs. Josiah Cratty, of Oak Park, has a cattery called the "Jungfrau Katterie," and her cats are remarkably beautiful. Her Bartimaeus and True Blue are magnificent white cats, sired by Mrs. ”

“ And, for an instant, as he watched it, the doctor was aware that a faint uneasiness stirred in the depths of his own being, focusing itself for the moment upon this curious behaviour of the uncanny creature before him.
There rose in him quite a new realisation of the mystery connected with the whole feline tribe, but especially with that common member of it, the domestic cat—their hidden lives, their strange aloofness, their incalculable subtlety. How utterly remote from anything that human beings understood lay the sources of their elusive activities. ”

“ When they were good I let them play with my tail; but I always kept one paw ready to punish them if they bit me, or bit each other. I took great comfort with my dear kittens. They understood everything I said to them. One was taken from me, but I tried to be contented with what were left.
“They soon grew big enough to follow me all over the house, and I took them to many places. One room was always shut. I did not like that. No cat likes to have a door kept shut.
“One day a woman went in that room and worked and moved the things ”

“ It had been hunting in the river bank close by and caught a rabbit, or perhaps a musk-rat, and the warmth had attracted it into the circle of the little camp. It was a cat. A wild cat, of course, one of the great strong specimens that the trappers called catamounts, and quite possibly mate to the one that had bitten Andrew Lindsay. It carried its prey with head held rather high, as a household cat carries a mouse, and it stepped with the same wonderfully cautious delicacy, the big bushy tail drooping. ”

“ With their small behinds stiffly elevated, they rub themselves affectionately against the old cat’s legs and body; she positively disappears in a forest of tails. Purring loudly, her head erect, she remains standing before them, turning and twisting the interesting creature to give them a full view of the spoil.
At last, after what seems an endless wait, each receives his mouthful.
Big crouches on his haunches and plays delightedly with the mouse’s tail, which he holds in his paws. When, at a smack from him, it gives a jump, his eyes glow and he hops round his new toy on his hind legs. ”

“ Its fur, he saw, was standing ridgewise upon its back; the ears were flattened back somewhat; the tail was switching sharply. The cat, of course, had wakened him with a purpose, and the instant he realized this, he set it upon the arm of the chair and sprang up with a quick turn to face the empty room behind him. By some curious instinct, his arms of their own accord assumed an attitude of defence in front of him, as though to ward off something that threatened his safety. Yet nothing was visible. Only shapes of fog hung about rather heavily in the air, moving slightly to and fro. ”

“ In Silesia the reaper who cuts the last corn is called the "Tom-cat" and is dressed up in rye-stalks, wearing a long plaited tail. Sometimes another man accompanies him called "the female cat."
The Lapps of the North Cape are said to consult a black cat when in trouble, and they regard it more as a human being than as an animal.
The cat is among the soul-animals familiar to the inhabitants of the British Islands, who, owing to this country's immunity from wild beasts, are satisfied to [Pg 26] "humanise" the milder species of creatures such as the ant, butterfly, gull, moth, sparrow, and swan. ”

“ In summer it is not quite so bad, for the mice take to the fields, but in winter it is dreadful. The barns are alive with them and sparrows, and we cats have to work pretty hard, not to clear out the mice and sparrows altogether, for we can't do that, but to keep them down.” Then she added, after a time: “These are not all neighborhood cats. Some have come as far as three miles. You see, we don't often have a chance to hear a lecturer from Boston.”
“Who is that big white cat with a yellow patch over his eye?” I asked, “that one who is coming along under the apple trees quite alone?” ”