3 DECEMBER 1948, Page 14

A Cat Story

A lady again and again found the clay bars of her gas stove broken ofl for no apparent reason ; but one day she saw her cat, which of course loved to sit in front of the fire when lit, was striking the clay bars with her paw. It had watched its mistress apparently doing this when lighting the fire and hoped to achieve the same result by similar means! The story comes to me from a Reverend student of animal psychology. He suggests—in regard to the story of a scarecrow-loving lamb, recently told—that animals have little eye for form but depend on colour and smell. I wonder. As to cats there is a remarkable story in "Everyday Miracle" of a cat that attended a distant function precisely at 7.45 every Monday!