The Book of Cats. 1 53 



her size, he fairly turned tail and fled. Her surviving 

 kitten was the very picture of herself, and inherit- 

 ing also all her predatory habits ; when it grew up, 

 I was obliged to give it away. It left the house in 

 the neighbouring town to which I sent it, however, 

 and was afterwards seen domesticated in a stable 

 yard. Pussy and Carlo now became friends again; 

 at least, they never interfered with each other. 

 Pussy, however, to her cost, still continued her 

 hunting expeditions. The rabbits had committed 

 great depredations in the garden, and the gardener 

 had procured two rabbit-traps ; one had been set 

 a considerable distance from the house, and fixed 

 securely in the ground. One morning, the nurse 

 heard a plaintive mewing at the nursery window. 

 She opened it, and in crawled poor Pussy, dragging 

 the heavy iron rabbit-trap, in the teeth of which 

 her fore foot was caught. I was called in, and 

 assisted to release her ; her paw swelled, and for 

 some days she could not move out of the basket 

 in which she was placed before the fire. Though 

 suffering intense pain, she must have perceived that 

 the only way to release herself, was to dig up the 

 trap, and then she must have dragged her heavy 

 clog up many steep paths to the room where she 

 knew her kindest friends, nurse and the children. 



