NURSING PUPPIES. 399 



for the benefit of ladies who find themselves placed in 

 a similar predicament, my experience, or rather, at this 

 stage, inexperience, in walking a couple of Cottesmore 

 pups. I tried very hard to save those pups, nursed 

 them night and day, and had them in my room at night, 

 but both died. One of them was slowly recovering, 

 but was so weak that he could hardly stand, and I 

 was recommended to give him some fresh meat cut up 

 small. This food occasioned a relapse, and next day 

 he was dead. I notice that Mr. Otho Paget in his book 

 on Hunting recommends " a little raw fresh meat " for 

 weakly pups, but possibly he would not advocate it for 

 one getting over distemper. I attributed the death of 

 my charges solely to improper feeding, and have since 

 been successful in rearing others by feeding them at 

 first on bread and milk, biscuits and gravy, scraps 

 of cooked vegetables, and when meat has been 

 given, I have taken care to see that it has been cooked. 

 Even with the greatest attention to diet and exercise, 

 that horror, distemper, has attacked them, but they 

 have made a good recovery. At the time of writing 

 I am walking a couple of Pytchley pups, which alas, 

 will soon go to their permanent home. Both of them 

 have had distemper, one in a very severe form, 

 accompanied by an abscess in his throat, which pre- 

 vented him from swallowing anything but beaten eggs 

 and milk for several days. His portrait (Fig. 141) 

 shows that he has now " grown into a hound," and 

 I am proud of him, for all of the Pytchley pups of 

 the first, or spring batch, which were distributed in 



