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CHAPTER VIII
SOME CATS OF FRANCE
"Ella jouait avec sa chatte;
Et c'était merveille de voir
La main blanche et la blanche patte
S'ébattre dans l'ombre du soir."
IN the year 1865 juge de paix of Fontainebleau, from whom several householders had demanded legal protection for their cats, pronounced this admirable judgment.
"That the domestic cat is not a thing of naught, but the property of its master, and, as such, entitled to the shelter of the law;
"That the utility of the cat as a destroyer of mischievous rodents being indisputable, equity demands the extension of indulgence to an animal which the law tolerates and protects;
