A FELINE MOURNER..
[TO mila EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR."] Sin,—I read with much interest the stories of animals, especiallycats, which appear from time to time in the Spectator. May I add one showing that these much-maligned animals have both memory and affection ? I had a dear little dog, a Skye-terrier, and some time after he came to my house a wandered cat was added to the establishment. He was very kind to ' Bessie,' as we called our new inmate, and watched over her with great care, never allowing her to go out by the front door, bat pushing her gently in when she attempted it ; but they had many a romp together in the back garden. My dog died at the good old age of thirteen, and the cat mourned him like a human being, losing all her liveliness, and moping about the house. About a year after the dog's death I desired the gardener to put turf over his grave, as the house was let, and I feared strangers might dig there. To do this he began to level the earth over the grave, and whenever the cat saw him digging there she got into a most excited state, frisking about in the wildest spirits, evidently expecting that her kind companion was to be restored to her. Her disappointment, when he never appeared, was trying to witness ; and she has been a "sadder and a wiser" cat ever since, doing her duty faithfully by the mice, but apparently expecting little pleasure
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