A CAT-STORY.
[To Tam EDITOR or TEL EPISOTATOR."] SIR,—Reading as I do with much interest the dog and cat stories in the Spectator, I think the following instances of intel- ligence and sagacity that have come under my own observation may be welcomed by true lovers of those domestic friends. A dog that has been in my possession only a year (boasting, alas ! of no pedigree, but far more intelligent than his predecessor, a black Spitz of high degree) is addicted to roving habits on fine mornings as soon as the servants open the hall-door. On damp or foggy mornings he refuses to get up. Shortly after he took up his abode here, he stayed out on two occasions for eight or nine hours, thereby causing anxiety to his invalid mistress, who, knowing Prince's' habit of chasing every vehicle, feared that he had met with an untimely end. On the second occasion we remonstrated with the dog, as with a human being; his "leave of absence" was stopped for two mornings, and on the morning of his release he was seriously lectured, also threatened with a whipping unless he returned to breakfast. From that day to this—now six months ago—' Prince' has never failed to put in an appear. ance when we come down to breakfast, even if inclined to take another "constitutional" immediately afterwards. He gives daily fresh proofs of understanding perfectly all con- versation about himself. In this household is a cat who has discovered an ingenious mode of entrance in the evening when he returns from his strolls. Shortly after dusk on suc- cessive evenings the cook was puzzled when, on hearing a gentle ring at the area-bell, she opened the door to find no one visible. The ring being too quiet for that of a mischievous urchin running past, she concealed herself at the time the bell usually rang. She then found Blackie,' the cat, gently rubbing himself along the inside of the area-railings till he produced a vibration of the chain, when he would run down and glide quietly past the servant who came to open the back-
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