42
BON VOYAGE! 46
WANDERING MINSTRELS 56
A VERY FINE CAT 63

INTRODUCTION.

I was about to address my readers with the usual phrase, that "at the
request of friends" I had collected the scattered memorials of the chief
events of my life, and now presented them to the reading world, in the
hope that some lesson might be learnt from them, which could be useful
to the inexperienced when similarly situated. But I will be more candid,
and say rather, that "to please myself" I have put into a complete form
the recollections in question; not however without the wish that they
may prove of service to Cat, ay, and to Dog, and other kind. There never
was a life spent in this world but that its history could teach a
lesson; for, though every life has peculiarities of its own, and may be
varied in a thousand ways, the wishes, the resolutions of most of us do
not take a wide range, nor does it require a very extensive circle to
limit them all.

I would not however have my readers imagine that vanity alone has
induced me to record my experiences. No; I have had another, and
I think a higher motive. I wished to convey to the intelligence of all
animals capable of understanding the language of Caneville, some portions
of the history of a _real_ Cat; and, by so doing, try to remove from the
minds of many the opinion that she is a creature _ignorant of the finer
feelings, oblivious of gratitude_, incapable of strong attachments,
and so uncertain in her temper as to scratch and bite even, one minute,
the paw she has been licking and fondling the moment before. I wished to
prove that the same natural disposition holds good with our race as with
every other; that some of us are, from our birth, kind, rough, loveable,
cruel, tender-hearted, and ferocious, just as other beasts that wear a
tail or come into the world without one; and that this temperament may
be modified, and even changed, by education and treatment, precisely as
the dispositions of other animals.

It is a cruel wrong done to our race to exclaim, as many do, that "Cats
have no attachments, no tenderness; that there is always a lurking
fierceness in their hearts, which makes them forget, with the first mark
of roughness or ill treatment, a thousand benefits which they may have
formerly received." I deny it wholly. I, a Cat, affirm that, with few
exceptions, there are no animals more loving o