2i8 The Book of Cats. 



plate, and catch uneasy snatches of sleep, waiting 

 until he could go on again with his orgie, but 

 racked meanwhile by horrid fears lest anyone else 

 should get at his food, and only dozing off, as the 

 saying is, one eye at a time. This same red Cat 

 one day, when the servants were out, and I was 

 alone in the garden, came to me mewing in a 

 strange sort of way, looking, as I thought, very 

 anxious, and running backwards and forwards be- 

 tween me and the house. At last, following him as 

 he seemed to wish me to do, I accompanied him to 

 the street-door, where I found the butcher's boy 

 waiting with the lights. 



In giving a Cat the scrapings of dirty plates, it is 

 as well, if you value the animal's life, to remove the 

 fish bones, should there be any among the leavings. 

 Very frequently, as most Cats bolt their food, they 

 get a bone sticking in their mouth or throat, of 

 which they are unable to relieve themselves, and 

 suffer much pain without their owner's guessing at 

 the cause of their discomforture. A lady in a 

 house I was staying at, had a Cat that got what was 

 afterw^ards supposed to be a fish bone sticking in its 

 mouth, far at the back, in such a way that it was 

 unable to close its jaws. For two or three days it 

 remained in this state, refusing all food, and looking 



