254 RABBITS, CATS AND CAVIES 



our district, of a boy who had been ordered to drown him 

 in the pond in a quarry, hence his name, and after he 

 came into my hands he took many prizes at our largest 

 shows, and was one of the best really brown tabbies I 

 have seen for many years, so many of that supposed 

 colour being greyish where they should be brown. 



About five years since there was a man who went 

 under the name of Leonidas, who had been very success- 

 ful as a trainer of performing dogs and cats. The following 

 are some of his experiences of the latter : 



" I train my dogs and cats by kindness and patience, 

 oh ! so much patience. 



" The main thing is to get them to understand what 

 you want them to do, and then they do it quickly enough ; 

 I am sure dogs and cats reason up to a certain point. 



" They can reason sufficiently to understand what I want 

 them to do. It isn't imitation, because I never show them 

 what I want done, but explain what I wish, and tell them 

 to do it. 



" Dogs have more reason than cats, and are far easier to 

 train. 



" Cats are capricious, and must be coaxed all the time ; 

 if you let a cat know you are trying to make it do a thing, 

 it won't do it ; one must always be kind to them. 



"To teach them new tricks, I tell them what I want 

 done, and flatter them into doing it. For instance, when 

 I wanted to teach Mimisse, the cat, to climb up a rope 

 the full height of the stage, open and enter a basket 

 attached to a parachute, which I let loose, I hold her on 

 the rope and say, ' Up, up, up ! ' petting her all the time. 



