THE WILD MOTHER 223 



markable as it is, that the most careful and expe- 

 rienced of observers would find hard to credit, 

 but because it reads so much like a page out of 

 the " Natural History of Selborne." 



She writes : 



" Our Tootsy became a mother of several little 

 kittens ; as she was not in the best of health we 

 thought best not to let her raise any of them. For 

 a day or two she mourned for her little ones. As 

 she was the pet of the family, we consoled her as 

 best we could. This day I had her out on the 

 lawn. I looked down to the bridge, saw a little 

 squirrel up on one of the bridge-posts. I picked 

 Tootsy up and let her climb the post and catch 

 the squirrel, thinking it would take her mind off 

 from her grief for a while. 



" She brought it up on the lawn, and in place 

 of playing with it and finally eating it, as is the 

 nature of cats, she wanted to mother it. We then 

 left her, and soon we discovered she had taken it 

 upstairs in mother's bed and hid it. She staid with 

 it all night, and we saw the little squirrel could 

 take nourishment. 



" The next day she found two more squirrels 

 and brought them home, so we had a family of 



