7 FEBRUARY 1885, Page 14

ANECDOTE OF A CAT.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " spEcTAToR."1 SIR,—About two months ago, while staying in the Rocky Mountains in Northern Colorado, I witnessed an example of fatherly affection in a tom-cat, which I feel sure you will be interested to hear of. This cat had adopted two motherless kittens ; he slept with them at night, guarded them in the daytime, and always superintended their meals, in which latter he showed great unselfishness. For the hostess of the ntnche was in the habit of feeding the kittens out of a small bowl of milk laid on the floor, into which they at once would plunge their heads ; meanwhile "Kitty Grey," the old tom-cat—quite aware that there was not room for his own great head in it, too—would sit by, complacently watching them, nor move till they had finished, except when his hunger was very keen, and then he would dip his paw in now and again and lick it. This was the case when I saw him ; and I shall not readily forget the sight of that large grey-and-white cat walking demurely round the bowl to see where he could best insert his paw without disturbing the kittens, and then, with his head much on one side, dipping it delicately in and out, until they had quite finished, when he at once fell•to and drank up the remainder.—I am,

Sir, &c., L. C. P.