TWO CATS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I think your readers may be interested in two cat stories from Australia. The truth of the following was vouched for by a friend. Her brother had a favourite cat. He was a sailor, and whenever he went to sea the cat dis- appeared until his return. At one time he was shipwrecked. His family thought that he must have perished, but one day the cat appeared, and the same day the sailor returned. Finally he was killed by a fall from the rigging, and they never saw the cat again.
The other story might vie with some of those in the " Lost and Found " competition, if one did not know the explanation. A man living in Adelaide had a cat that he had tried to get rid of several times by taking it long distances from home and abandoning it. Having occasion to visit some friends at Port Adelaide he took the cat with him, tied up in a sack with a heavy stone at the bottom. After leaving his friends. house, he walked to the river, took the sack with the struggling cat inside, and flung it into the water. He watched for a few minutes to make sure that the cat had not by any chance escaped, and then returned home. Next morning, when he opened the door, what was his amazement to see the cat on the doorstep. Some time later, he happened to meet one of the family he had called on that afternoon, and men- tioned the incident. His friend then confessed that, knowing he intended to drown his cat, they had substituted one of their own and had let his go free.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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