370 Quotes About Cats and Kittens - 18

We tie bright ribbons around their necks, and occasionally little tinkling bells, and we affect to think that they are sweet and vapid as the coy name "kitty" by which we call them would imply. It is a curious illusion. For, purring beside our fireplaces and pattering along our back fences we have got a wild beast as uncowed and uncorrupted as any under heaven.

A cat is much delighted to play with her image in a glass, and if at any time she behold it in water, presently she leapeth down in the water which naturally she doth abhor. Nothing is more contrary to the nature of a cat than is wet and water and for this cause came the proverb that they love not to wet their feet.

There is a propensity belonging to common house cats that is very remarkable. I mean their violent fondness of fish, which appears to be their most favorite food; and yet nature, in this instance, seems to have planted in them an appetite that unassisted, they know not how to gratify; for of all quadrupeds, cats are the least disposed towards water; and will not, when they can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element.

If we could be as clever as the cat and not lose some of the more choice elements of childhood — like being curious and being able to unwind, play, and relax completely — not only would we be wiser in the end but the end would perhaps be slower in coming for most of us.