CAT-STORIES.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."] read with interest, in a recent number of the Spectator an account of the friendship between a hen and a kindly natured cat, the pet of the little girl mentioned in the letter.. May I give another instance of such a friendship from my own experience. Some years ago, when living in my old home in a small country town, I also had a well-beloved cat, who certainly was distinguished beyond tho average for affection and sagacity. One spring my fine brood of chickens was attacked by a rat from whose very jaws I rescued one, only to see it quickly breathe its last. I said to the eat :— " This will never do; you must watch the rat's hole until' something can be done to save the chickens." He evidently understood my meaning, and settled himself down close to the mother and her chicks, and there patiently waited for some boars, keeping the rat at a safe distance, the hen evidently quite trusting her family to his care. I never knew him harm a chicken, but, being a cat with a great sense of humour, he would sometimes hide behind some bushes in the garden, which was forbidden ground to the cocks and hens, and from this ambush suddenly spring into their very midst when thinking no one was near, they were quietly marching up the gravel path, and then, with glee, he would drive them all before him, clucking and shrieking, to their proper and lawfal, territory.—I am, Sir, &c., S. A. B. P.S.—This cat, I grieve to say, died of a broken heart when, the old home was broken up, and I was obliged to leave him, to the care of a kind neighbour.
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