A CAT-STORY.
[To MI EDITOR or THZ " SPECTATOlf."1 Six,—Thinking the following incident shows great intelli- gence in a cat, I am sending you an account of it. On the second day of my Christmas holidays, when I was about half a mile from home, a strange and beautiful cat stopped me in the road, crying piteously and rubbing against me. I took it to the door of the house we were opposite, rang, and asked if it belonged there; the maid said it lived next door. I tried about half a dozen houses in vain, and at last spent about ten
minutes ringing at an empty house. The next-door neighbour, however, appeared and told me that the cat's mistress, who kept a school, had left home, locking up the house with pussy outside. As she (the neighbour) had a canary she did not dare take the cat into her house. Rather than that pussy should sleep out of doors at Christmas time, I accepted the loan of a hamper from the neghbour, left my name and address for the owner, and carried pussy home. He spent the holidays with us, and when his mistress returned she fetched him away in a covered basket. Much to my amusement, when I reached home the other day for my Easter holidays, 'the first thing that the parlour-maid said was, " The visitor- cat has come back of himself." I went round to see if his mistress were away on her holidays, and found that she had left Fareham altogether. As he made both the journeys in a -covered basket I think this cat is very clever.—I am, Sir, &c., Nostin POWYS.
50 High Street, Fareham, Hants, April 22nd.
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