THE CARE OF THE CAT 22Q 



ings out of the question, her physical system 

 suffers. 



I cannot close the subject of our treatment 

 of the cat without a protest against an un- 

 kindness, to say the least of it, which we see 

 perpetrated every summer. How many fami- 

 lies do we see in the city who pack up their 

 belongings and depart, bag and baggage, chil- 

 dren, servants, and even dogs, and turn the 

 key upon the family cat, who has just as strong 

 a claim on them as the dog, just as much right 

 to be provided for as he. Do they ever give 

 a thought to the abandoned wretch, forced 

 to spend his days on back fences, his nights 

 where he can; to have no shade from the 

 heat, no refuge from street boys, no water to 

 drink, and to steal or starve through the long 

 summer months, while the family are enjoy- 

 ing themselves in the country ? Let nobody 

 say the cat would not go. If well treated, and 

 therefore fond of the family, he would be glad 

 to go, and it would be far kinder to put the 

 beast forever to sleep with chloroform than 

 to abandon him to the life of a vagabond. 



Moreover, besides the Society for the Pre- 

 vention of Cruelty to Animals, which in our 



