tabbyhood

— You know, an old she-cat with a mess of kittens growing up to Tom and Tabbyhood will, at some certain period of their career, bring in a mouse and let her offspring play with the poor creature until they acquire the taste for mice.

— ...to have gained both bachelor's prizes and have beat Professor Sandford, in competition for a Fellowship at Oriel; then to have become college tutor—embued the rising generation for six years with classical literature and philosophy —married a wife verging on her tabbyhood, and retired, without any reasonable prospect of a family, to read Jeremy Taylor in a snug living of ₤1000 a-year.