Everyone knows that there are all kinds of people; also there are all kinds of cats, worthy and unworthy. No two are exactly alike, and by those who do not class them in a bunch, but study them as individuals, they are found to have decided characteristics all their own, ever presenting strange surprises in a mixture of the unexpected higher qualities of civilization and the evils of lowest barbarism. The appeal of the kitten is almost universal, as there are few men, women or children, even those who "shudder" at a real cat, who can resist the subtle charm of these fuzzy lumps of playfulness. But cats, the alley cat, your cat, my cat, anybody's cat, all cats are in need of some brave champion, someone who will endeavor to portray their better side and be able to so increase for them the appreciation of mankind that they will come to what is only rightfully their own. Whatever your faith or practice may be touching cats, you are bound to admit that they must surely have some kind of mission here on earth. The trend of modern beneficence shows the day of even the cat is on the way, the day when they shall be better understood, making the world kinder to them in recognizing that these often sadly abused little creatures, have the feelings common to flesh and blood and are times without number, actuated by human thoughts and impulses. Recent years have done much in the way of atonement for persistent error in regard to their nature, by thrusting upon them a balance long their due in the form of many happy literary tributes, proving, in spite of much withering scorn, that environment has much more to do with their lack of worth than has original sin.

The lowly state of the average cat, just tolerated for its usefulness as a natural rat executioner, is unworthy of its better capabilities, and to the heart of a lover of the species, a cruelty. It is companionship which counts the most with cats, and when, instead of being a comfortable family institution as was intended, their nature being of the warmest and most sociable kind, they are mercilessly relegated to the cold cellar or outhouse to battle for life and sustenance, they are more miserable than anyone can imagine who does not know how a cat longs for home life and company. If left in this way to struggle for a meager existence, without a word of kindness, and chased for their very lives if they presume, in their lonely longing, to timidly enter the family refinement, is it a wonder that under these conditions, these dwellers in solitude develop only the worse and uglier traits in their disposition?

Although cats are brimful of human whims and moods and are also very human in their devotion to home, order and cleanliness, they are decidedly slow in attaching themselves to humans and not quick to give them their friendship. Unlike a dog, they maintain a rather haughty independence in the matter of reciprocity, and after they have decided that you are worthy of the honor of their confidence, and they have given it, it can only be retained by constant entreaty and on the strictest terms of obligation, never forced. To know something of the queer brain and really glowing heart beneath the mystery of their graceful furry coats, a heart which they guard almost fiercely against mere "curious" intimacy, it is necessary to make an effort; but as every cat lover knows, they will surely repay such effort in lavish response. And above all, in trying to get acquainted with cats, show them the compliment of companionship which they truly and cordially appreciate, for they, too, are in various ways "also human" and their readiness to respond to intimacy of this kind is a most gratifying surprise to the skeptical.