Domesticated since the time of the Pharaohs, but never completely tamed, cats still retain their sense of mystery and fascinate those privileged enough to share their lives. The inimitable free spirit of the eat is celebrated in this 'purr-fectly' charming selection of cat stories, anecdotes, essays and poems.

In Great Cat Tales you will find a wealth of tributes from both famous authors of the past and well-loved contemporary writers. The wide- ranging contents embrace Leigh Hunt's "The Cat by the Fire" and Rudyard Kipling's myth-like "The Cat That Walked by Himself;" Charles Dudley Warner's famous and touching portrait "Calvin the Cat;" eerie murderous instincts in Patricia Highsmith's "Ming's Biggest Prey;" uproarious comedy in "The Story of Webster" by P.G. Wodehouse; and poems by, among others, Emily Dickinson, John Keats and W.B. Yeats.

Essential reading for cat-lovers everywhere, Great Cat Tales is a deft balance of old favorites and new and delightful surprises.
--front flap

Slippers. The White House Cat — Jacob A. Riis .
The Story of Webster — P. G. Wodehouse „
Puss in Boots — Charles Perrault
Jephson's Cat Stories — Jerome K. Jerome
The Silent Miaow — Paul Gallico
The Cameronian Cat —Anon
The Attic — Algernon Blackwood .
A Parable for Philanthropists — Anon
The White Cat — C. H. Ross .
Tobermory — Saki .
Dick Whittington's Cat — Traditional
The Cat of the Cherokees — Herbert Ravenel Sass
The Cat — Harry Graham
In Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome — Dorothy Margaret Stewart .
Aga — Lord Zouche .
The Black and White Dynasties — Théophile Gautier .
The Cat and the Rat — La Fontaine .
Tom Connor's Cat — Samuel Lover
What The Cat Thinks of the Dog Anon
The Cat — Mary E. Wilkins Freeman .
On the Death of a Cat — Christina Rossetti .
Dick Baker's Cat — Mark Twain .
Hannibal — Anatole France
About My Cats — Michael Joseph
The Sending of Dana Da — Rudyard Ktphng
Dogs and Cats — Alexandre Dumas .
Three Little Kittens — Anon
Calvin, The Cat — Charles Dudley Warner
Why is there Enmity Between the Cat and the Dog? —
Traditional...
The Musion — Bossewell .
Feline Instinct — Bernard Perez
Hey Diddle Diddle! — Anon .
The Cat That Walked by Himself— Rudyard Kipling .
The Cat and the Robin — Emily Dickinson
The Undoing of Morning Glory Adolphus — N. Margaret Campbell
The Boy Who Drew Cats — Ambrose Bierce
The Cat Painter — Anon
The Cat's Pilgrimage — James Anthony Froude .
Verses on a Cat — Percy Bysshe Shelley
Of some amiable Cats, and Cats that
have been good Mothers — C. H. Ross
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat — Edmund Lear
The Theatre Cat —John S. Lopez .
How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe — Charles G. D. Roberts
Little White King — Marguerite Steen ................................................
The Tom Cat — Don Marquis .
The Cat and Cupid — Arnold Bennett .
Why The Cat Sleeps Indoors and The Dog Outside —
Traditional
The Fat Cat — Q. Patrick
The Cat and the Fox — La Fontaine
Some Clever Cats — C. H. Ross .
The Childhood of Miss Churt — F. R. Buckley
Ming's Biggest Prey — Patricia Highsmith .
The Cat and Superstition — Anne Marks .
The Cat and the Moon — W. B. Yeats .
The Cat's Paradise — Emile Zola
The Cheshire Cat — Lewis Carroll .
Miss Edith's Modest Request — Bret Harte .
Below the Mill Dam — Rudyard Kipling
The Vatican Cat — Judy Martin
Ginger — Lady Morgan .
Pangur Ban — Samuel Courtland
Three Cats — Colette —
Mike — Sir Ernest A. Wallace Budge
The Blue Dryad — G. H. Powell .
The Black Cat — Edgar Allan Poe ..
The Fox and the Cat — Allan Cunningham
A Cat Correspondence — Anna Seward Dr Darwin .
Tom Quartz: Miner's Cat — Mark Twain .
From The Sphinx — Oscar Wilde
My Cat Jeoffrey — Christopher Smart .
Object of Love Mary E. Wilkins Freeman .
Cats and Dogs — Jerome K. Jerome .
A Dying Cat — Pierre Loti .
Sir Robert Grant - cat — Sir Thomas Gordon .
Mice Before Milk — Geoffrey Chaucer
Feline Favourites — Théophile Gautier
To My Cat — Rosamund Marriott Watson .
Turkish Customs — Charles de Manoncourt .
From the Diary Of a Cat — Edwina