no CAT AND KITTENS. 



The cat brings forth three times a year, and often more. 

 The time of gestation is to sixty-three days, and the number 

 of the kittens varies much. Some will have five to six at a 

 birth, while others never have more than two or three. I 

 had a blue tabby, " The Old Lady," which never had more 

 than one. The cat, however, is a very prolific animal, and, 

 if of long life, produces a very numerous progeny. The 

 Derby Gazette, December loth, 1886, states: — "There is a 

 cat at Cromford, the age of which is nineteen years. It be- 

 longed to the late Mr. Isaac Orme, who died a few months 

 ago. The old man made an entry of all the kittens the cat 

 had given birth to, which, up to the time of his death, 

 numbered 120. It has now just given birth to one more. 

 It will not leave the house where the old man died, except 

 to visit a neighbouring house, where there is a harmonium ; 

 and when the instrument is being played, the cat will go 

 and stand on its hind-legs beside the player." 



Cats live to various ages, the oldest I have seen 

 being twenty-one years, and the foregoing is the greatest 

 age at w^hich I have known one to breed. But I am 

 indebted to Mrs. Paterson, of Tunbridge Wells, for the 

 information that Mr. Sandal had a cat that lived to the 

 extraordinary age of twenty-four years. I have seen Mr. 

 Sandal, and found that such w^as the case. It was a short- 

 haired cat, and rather above the usual size, and tabby in 

 colour. 



When littered, the kittens are weak, blind, deaf, help- 

 less Uttle things, and it appears almost impossible they can 

 ever attain the supple grace and elegance of form and 

 motion so much admired in the fully-developed cat. 



The state of visual darkness continues until the eighth 

 or ninth day, during which the eyesight is gradually develop- 

 ing. After this they grow rapidly, and, at the age of a few 

 weeks, the gamboling, frolicsome life of "kittenhood " begins, 

 and they begin to feed, lap milk, if slightly warm, when 

 placed in front of them. 



No animal is more fond and attentive than the cat; 

 she is the most tender and gentle of nurses, watching 



