Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Appropriate Costume for Cat Hunts

While reading another thread I was astonished to read some writers claimed to engage in the apparent sport of cat hunting! Now I've heard of deer hunting, coon hunting, and even snipe hunting, but a casual search regarding this sport of cat hunting elicited no enlightenment.

Obviously, this is a local custom that, somehow, managed to slip by the all-seeing eye of Wikipedia. Therefore, in the desire for advancing knowledge regarding this persumably local sport, I would like to know just how it is done.

Are there cat-hunting dogs, just like there are fox dogs or coon dogs?

May ladies also participate in feline hunts, or should we be catty about this?

Is the prey pursued on horseback, with the riders wearing pinks, tan trousers or jodhpurs, black helmets, and black boots while yelling "Tally-Ho"?

May ladies also wear the appropriate cat-hunting costume when given permission by the Master of the Hunt?

I am aware that fox hunting carries a social cachet to it; but, because of that, it also has certain requirements that it be done correctly. I would not be surprised if cat hunting is likewise socially regulated when practiced by the country club set.

Maybe we can update Oscar Wilde's quote:"A cat hunt is the unspeakable chasing after the inedible."