Читать книгу Book of Cats and Dogs, and Other Friends, for Little Folks - James Johonnot - Страница 8
ОглавлениеHOW THE CAT MOVES.
1. Now, Jessie, look at your kitty's feet and see if you can tell us how she can catch mice and birds so easily.
2. I will try. Pussy has long and sharp claws, but they are drawn back into her foot, so I cannot see them.
3. The bottoms of her feet are covered with a thick skin, so that it does not hurt her to walk over stones and rough places.
4. When I feel of her feet, I find that the bottoms are soft, so that kitty is able to move about without making a noise.
5. When she is hunting, she creeps along so quietly that the mouse does not hear her until she is so near that she can spring upon it.
6. Then her sharp nails come out, as you see in this picture, and the little mouse is caught by his coat and cannot get away.
7. I see that the nails upon her hind feet are not so sharp as those on the front ones. She does not catch mice with her hind feet, and so only the nails of her fore feet need be very sharp.
8. When pussy runs up a tree, her sharp nails hold on to the bark, and she uses her hind claws as well as the fore ones. This is what I read in a book a little while ago about a cat's claws, and I thought it very strange:
9. "The claws of a cat grow very fast, just as our nails do, and, if the cat did not rub them off, they would grow so long that she could not use them. So, when the cat feels that her nails are getting too long, she scratches something hard until she wears them down to the right length.
10. "You have seen the cat stretching up and scratching the side of the door or a tree: this is the way she has of paring her nails."
11. When pussy is angry or afraid, her sharp claws come out of her foot, and she makes ready to scratch.
12. My pussy knows that a dog is stronger in the jaws than she is; and so, when a strange dog comes about, she gives him a scratch with both her paws, and then gets into some safe place as soon as she can.
