3 APRIL 1942, Page 11

A Feline Amenity

An agricultural labourer, who turns his hand with intelligence to many jobs, perhaps even poaching, dug up a nest of very young rabbits. Having some difficulty in finding enough food for his cat, which had recently produced a litter, he decided to give her one of the rabbits by way of extra sustenance. When he visited her the next morning he found her in yet greater need of food than before, since she was suckling the young rabbit along with her own kittens. She continued to mother it with proper affection till it was more or less grown up. I have ofen heard of animals suckling their natural enemies, including rats ; but it has always been when they had been deprived of their own babies. This cat simply took in an evacuee.