Newspaper Clipping of the Day

The latest in the "Boston Post's" "Famous Cats of New England" is the exemplary Tabby:

"A good and faithful cat." That's the title to distinction claimed for Tabby, the 13-year-old tiger cat of Mrs. William Horne, 6 Elton street, Dorchester. A 24-pound monster of the best type of tiger cat Tabby has, according to Miss May Horne, been a perfectly behaved cat throughout his dozen years of life.

"Good and kind, never scratched in all those years," was Miss Horne's eulogy of her handsome pet. And Tabby sat on a little table and looked up at her young mistress with conscious virtue written all over him as she spoke. Sometimes his great gold eyes winked a bit or his ears wiggled or a whisker twitched as if he would throw in a word of two in cat language.

"Never a single thing has he stolen," went on Miss Horne. "He just goes and sits in front of the ice box when he wants to be fed. If no one is about he rattles the knob until we hear it. When he wants to go out he scratches at the front or back door. He has never ran or stayed away from home in all his life. He's at the door every single night to meet my father and he rolls over and over in front of him to express his joy that he's come home."

Tabby's dislike of water is interesting. Getting thirsty he will sit before the faucet and cry, but when he is offered water he will not touch it but continue to cry until milk is brought. Whistling is as offensive to his ears as music is to the ears of the average dog. He lifts his head and yowls whenever the butcher or the baker enter the house whistling.

Only cooked food appeals to Tabby's pampered appetite and of meats only lamb and kidney. The diet has evidently agreed with him for he is a well preserved, fine looking cat, apparently in the prime of life with many years ahead with which to make glad the family where he lives.
~December 31, 1920

Sadly, reading this tribute to his many virtues went to Tabby's head. He subsequently murdered his entire family in their sleep, robbed every store in town of their tuna supplies, and went on a multi-state crime spree that is still famous in New England history as "The Great Tabby Terror."

I kid, I kid.