“The Cat That Walked by Himself” by Rudyard Kipling gives us an insight into the character traits of the cat.
<u>Explanation</u>:
The short story is basically an allegory stating about the history of animal domestication. The dog, cow, and the horse were tamed to become familiar domestic versions of themselves over the course of history but cats are different.
Most domesticated animals were bent to the will of humans and cats were kept to get rid of rodents. The cat in the story is ready to trade some of his autonomy for comfort, but is adamant about surrendering his identity and freedom. The story is a filtration of thousands of years of ongoing negotiations between the humans and the cats but they have stood up to their own rules and humans haven’t been able to agree them to their will completely.
