92 GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



As raw meat or other raw food is natural to the cat, 

 it is far the best, with vegetables, for keeping the bod}', 

 coat, and skin in good condition and health, and the securing 

 of a rich, bright, high colour and quality. On no account 

 try to improve these by either medicinal liquids, pills, or 

 condiments ; nothing can be much worse, as reflection will 

 prove. If the cat is healthy, it is at its best, and will keep 

 so by proper food ; if unwell, then use such medicines as 

 the disease or complaint it suffers from requires, a7id ?iot 

 otherwise. JSIany horses and other animals have their con- 

 stitutions entirely ruined by what are called " coat tonics," 

 which are useless, and only believed in and practised by 

 the thoughdess, gullible, and foolish. Does any one, or 

 will any one take pills, powders, or liquids, for promoting 

 the colour or texture of their hair; would any one be so silly? 

 And yet we are coolly told to give such things to our 

 animals. Granted that in illness medicine is of much service, 

 in health it is harmful, and tends to promote disease where 

 none exists. 



SLEEPING PLACES. 



I MUCH prefer a round basket filled with oat straw to any- 

 thing else ; some urge that a box is better ; my cats have a 

 basket. It is well to sprinkle the straw occasionally with 

 Keating's Powder or flour of sulphur, which is a preventive 

 of insect annoyances, and "Prevention is better than cure." 



Never shut cats up in close cupboards for the night, 

 there being little or no ventilation; it is most injurious, pure 

 air being as essential to a cat as to a human being. 



Always have a box with dry earth near the cat's sleeping 

 place, unless there is an opening for egress near. 



Do not, as a rule, put either collar or ribbon on your cat; 

 though they may thereby be improved in appearance, they 

 are too apt to get entangled or caught by the collar, and 

 often strangulation ensues ; besides which, in long-haired cats, 

 it spoils their mane or frill. Of course at shows it is 

 allowable. 



