Page:How and Why Library 282.jpg

 ====II. Pet Pussy and King Lion==== Men have known lions longer than they have bears. They have lived right next door to lions for thousands of years, but they never called a lion "brother." They never felt as friendly as that toward this fierce, proud beast. He has always been King of the dry plains of Africa and the hot jungle of India. In the menagerie and zoo he keeps everyone at a distance, and seems to feel very much above all the other animals, and even men. If he could understand that he has a cousin so small, so tame, and so playful that little children make a pet of him, he might just roar with rage and shame

The lion is only a very big wild cat. Your pet kitten is like him in more ways than you imagine. In fact, pussy is a live and lively book on lions. Live books are better than printed ones, and much more interesting Pussy walks and runs and crouches and springs exactly as a lion does. She watches a mouse hole and springs on her prey as a lion does, too. Turn her on her back and look at her paws. There are five toes on her front paws, one of them a sort of thumb, but only four toes on her hind paws. Did you know that? On each toe is a little curved toe-nail, as sharp as a little sickle. Pussy keeps her claws inside her pretty, soft fur mittens most of the time. But she can push them out as quick as a wink, pull them back again and scratch exactly like a lion. Under the toes and the balls of the feet are soft, naked cushions, so pussy makes no sound when she walks. All the wild cats—the lions, tigers and leopards, the jaguars, panthers and lynxes have feet just like the house cat's.

Now look at pussy's head. She has upright, outward-turning ears. She must hear well because she hunts at night. On each side of her mouth are long stiff hairs. These are feelers to keep her from putting her head into a smaller hole than her body can go through. Her eyes are the strangest of all. There are windows, or pupils, in them, for letting the light in, as there are in your eyes. In the dark these windows are big and round, so they shine like little yellow moons. But in the daytime, or in a lamp-lighted room, those pupils close to a narrow, up-and-down slit to keep the light out Pussy can see in the dark so well because she can open her eye-windows so wide. Some of the lesser wild cats shut the pupils of their eyes