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Killing the Guilty Cat. 



Tlie method recommended by 175 observers, "Kill the cat," 

 is a sure and safe one. This applies to both bird-killing and 

 chicken-killing cats, although it is easier to teach a cat not to 

 molest chickens than to teach it to let wild birds alone. Poultry- 

 men almost always find that when a cat once gets a taste of 

 chicken, the only safety lies in killing the cat, and the main 

 reason that so few farmers' cats kill chickens is that the chicken- 

 killing cat is very short lived, and has little chance to transmit 

 its bad tendencies to offspring. Wild or stray cats, village and 

 city cats, and not farm cats, are the chief chicken killers. If 

 every bird-killing cat were killed, and those that give their at- 

 tention mainly to rats were kept, we would have fewer cats, but 

 the survivors and their progeny would be more useful and much 

 less harmful than most cats now are. It is well known that many 

 cats specialize. Some take to hunting rats and mice and rarely 

 look at birds in the trees: others hunt birds mainly and trouble 

 rats and mice very little; others hunt everything from insects 

 to cock pheasants; still others hunt rabbits and game, and some 

 rarely hunt at all. The useful and nearly harmless cat possibly 

 might be produced by selection and breeding. A rat-hunting 

 female cat, if allowed to nurse and raise her own kittens, usually 

 rears some good ratters. 



Confining or Tethering the Cat. 



A good ratter when confined in a building with rats and mice 

 will devote its attention to them. A cat that will not do this is 

 worthless except as a pet or an exhibit in a cat show. During 

 spring and summer, when birds are nesting and breeding, cats 

 may be confined in buildings or cages. Let no one think it cruel 

 to confine a cat. Of course, one unused to being deprived of its 

 liberty is likely, if shut up, to set up a piteous mewing, but cats 

 brought up in narrow quarters live happily, especially if they have 

 mice and perchance rats to give zest to life. Many cats live 

 most of their lives in cages, while many others are kept in build- 

 ings that they are not allowed to leave. If brought up in such 

 quarters they are cheerful and contented. Miss Repplier writes 

 as follows of cats in confinement: — 



As a fact, imprisonment has scant terrors for the cat. It accords too well 

 with her serene and contemplative disposition. Restless wanderer though 

 she appears, and true lover of liberty though she is, and has ever been, she 

 can yet live her life with tranquil enjoyment in a ship, on the seventh floor 



