Cats
Stolen from SF Chronicle this morning:
"Of all domestic animals the cat is the most equivocal and suspicious. He is kept, not for any amiable qualities but purely with a view to banish rats, mice, and other noxious vermin from our houses, granaries, etc. Although cats, when young, are playful and gay, they possess at the same time an innate malice and perverse disposition, which increases as they grow up, and which education teaches them to conceal, but never to subdue. Constantly bent upon theft and rapine, though in a domestic state, they conceal all their designs; seize every opportunity of doing mischief, and then fly from punishment.
"They easily take on the habits of society, but never its manners, for they have only the appearance of friendship and attachment. This disingenuity of character is betrayed by the obliquity of their movements and the ambiguity of their looks. In a word, the cat is totally destitute of friendship; he thinks and acts for himself alone. ... Their sleep is light; and they often assume the appearance of sleeping when in reality they are meditating mischief."
"Of all domestic animals the cat is the most equivocal and suspicious. He is kept, not for any amiable qualities but purely with a view to banish rats, mice, and other noxious vermin from our houses, granaries, etc. Although cats, when young, are playful and gay, they possess at the same time an innate malice and perverse disposition, which increases as they grow up, and which education teaches them to conceal, but never to subdue. Constantly bent upon theft and rapine, though in a domestic state, they conceal all their designs; seize every opportunity of doing mischief, and then fly from punishment.
"They easily take on the habits of society, but never its manners, for they have only the appearance of friendship and attachment. This disingenuity of character is betrayed by the obliquity of their movements and the ambiguity of their looks. In a word, the cat is totally destitute of friendship; he thinks and acts for himself alone. ... Their sleep is light; and they often assume the appearance of sleeping when in reality they are meditating mischief."