True Stories About Dogs and Cats | Page 7

returned to his bed with the painful conviction that he must
kill his intelligent but unprincipled four-footed friend. It is said nothing
will cure a dog of the habit of sheep killing.
In the morning the sorrowful master went to the stable. As he
approached, he said, "O, Hero, how could you do so wrong? I must
have you killed." Quick as thought, the dog pushed his collar over his
ears, darted through the window, and flew like lightning away. No one
in that town ever saw him again.
Mr. Miles told me also that he knew a dog that would carry letters to
persons when told their names; and that no one dared touch the letter
but the person to whom it was directed. No bribe, no coaxing would
induce him to stop when going on these errands. If other dogs annoyed
him, he would not notice them, but run the faster, and take care to
chastise them at another time.
Creatures that show such intelligence, who can understand our
language, and are capable of what is best in our nature, that is, of
self-forgetting love, should be treated with the greatest tenderness. We
know not what they may be capable of till we have tried the influence
of constant justice and kindness. It is questionable whether poor Hero
could have been cured of his fault. But I would give all a chance."
"I should like to have Hero for my dog," said Frank, "and live with him
in a place where there were no sheep; and then, after many years, he

might forget his bad tricks."
"I must say something in favor of the much-abused cat. Doubtless she
would be a much better member of society, if she were better treated, if
she had a better example set before her.
Sportsmen are very angry because she catches birds, and because she is
sly. They will themselves lie down in the grass so that the birds may
not see them, and be as sly as the very slyest old puss, and yet they
cannot forgive her for watching noiselessly for birds. Has not she as
good a right as any sportsman to a little game? She takes only what she
wants to eat. She does not kill them in order to boast to another cat of
how many she has bagged.
They say she must be bad, for she kills singing birds. Do not sportsmen
kill larks and thrushes? Were you once to see a lark rising up into the
blue sky higher and higher, and hear him singing as he rises louder and
louder, as if he saw heaven opening, and wanted to tell you how
beautiful it was, and call you up there; and then to think of killing and
eating him, you would say, What cat can be so unfeeling as a man?
Who, with any music in his soul, could do so? Yet men do eat larks for
dinner, and then scold at the poor cat who treats herself with only one
perhaps. Why should she not be a little dainty? Men, women, and hoys
and girls are often cruel and unreasonable, not merely cats. The cat is as
good as she knows how to be."
"So you are, pussy," said Harry, taking up his pet cat in his lap, and
stroking her. "You never do any harm, but catch the mice in our
mother's barn. But you are a little sly, and, if you should catch birds,
right or wrong, I'm afraid I should box your ears. You must learn to do
without birds for your dinner."
"When I was in England," said Mrs. Chilton, "I saw, exhibited in a cage
about five feet square, rats, mice, cats and dogs, a hawk, a guinea pig, a
rabbit, some pigeons, an owl and some little birds, all together, as
amiable and merry as possible. Miss Puss sat in the midst, purring. The
others ran over her, or flew upon her head. She had no thought of
hurting them, and they were not afraid of her.

I found, on inquiring, that the way the keeper establishes such peace
and harmony is by systematic and constant gentleness, and by keeping
the animals all well fed. They are called the happy family.
The cage was always surrounded by a crowd of people curious to see
such natural enemies so happy together. Nothing but the law of
kindness could make all those creatures so civil and well behaved to
each other. But I must not forget my anecdotes of that respectable
animal, the cat.
You need not smile; I mean to make you respect, as well as love cats.
There are some men, and many boys who say they are domestic tigers,
that they are sly, that they steal, that you