4 MAY 1907, Page 16

A WATER-LOVING TOM-CAT.

ITO TEE EDITOR OF TUE .EPECTAT011...]

Sra,—A tabby tom-cat which I have reared from a kitten and which is now nearly three years old possesses more amiable characteristics and paradoxical peculiarities than I have ever known a cat have before, and I have loved cats all my life. He bathes like a seal, having taught himself in a sponge-bath when about three months old, and thoroughly enjoys a romp with my big Labrador dog afterwards to get dry. He is a perfect demon for fledgling birds, walking all over the front of the ivy-clad house and hooking them from their nests, very often pouching fourteen a day. Yet be lies in the dining. room where a goldfinch, a siskin, and a linnet fly backwards and forwards 'continuously, often brushing close past his head, and of them he never takes the slightest notice. As I write he is mothering a belated chick which was extracted from its shell by ourselves this morning, the hen having left the nest with twelve others. It is snuggling between the cat's hind- legs and peeping out between them most comically. I must

add that this cat has never been beaten or trained in any way except by a quiet word.—I am, Sir, &a, F. T. SULLEN. Melbourn.