MORE CAT STORIES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sun,—From our own experience, I think I can cap the very interesting stories about cats in your paper. We had a beau- tiful tabby Angora who was a great pet with us all, and my mother's knee was her usual seat. One summer we got a couple of toads to watch their habits scientifically, and my mother wishing to see them snatch flies from our fingers with their long tongues, we put them on her knee. Her lady- ship seeing them sprawling and naked, jumped up to investi- gate, and finding them also cold her sympathy was unbounded. She curled herself round them and drew them into her soft fluffy fur with her gentle paws as if they had been young kittens; but we noticed that, although she laid her chin on them and showed every sign of devotion, she never attempted to lick them. When we returned them to their damp box in the cold cellar she remonstrated and tried to pull them out with her paws; she did not use her mouth, as she would have done with a kitten, and she was so distressed that we were quite sorry and had forcibly to remove her. First thing next morning when she was let out of her sleeping quarters she returned to the cellar-door and demanded entrance, and when refused mewed pitifully, haunting the place all day and neglect- ing her food. We had to avoid letting her see the toads at all, as it always started her fretting anew.
'This cat had limited but very strong affections. To my uncle, Lord Kelvin, she showed great devotion, and seemed to know his step, because she never failed to appear as soon as he came, and she sat with her paws on his foot gazing up at him with a look of absurd adoration. She always brought her kittens to introduce to him, even when they were very young and unfinished, and she was not satisfied till he had examined and admired them. Once she went to fetch one who was old enough to have a will of its own, and dragging it along took time. Meanwhile he had gone, and great were her lamentations when she deposited the kitten at his chair and looking up found it empty.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
