THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



hearts of the animal loving public I mean the 

 homes for poor stray and starving cats. It is 

 a mercy that there are now several of these 

 refuges in our great metropolis. I have per- 

 sonally visited Gordon Cottage at Argyle Road, 

 Hammersmith, and the London Institution in 

 Camden Town. The objects of both these 

 institutions are practically the same, namely : 

 (i) To receive and collect homeless and 

 diseased cats and painlessly destroy them. 



have been taken in. Not a day passes without 

 several wretched cats having to be destroyed 

 at once on admission, and 80 per cent, are 

 destroyed within twenty-four hours of admit- 

 tance. No charge is made to the poor, and only 

 is. 6d. for a painless death in the lethal cham- 

 ber is asked from those who can afford this 

 most merciful mode of destroying life. The 

 dead cats are cremated at the Battersea Dogs' 

 Home at a charge of 3d. each body. A motor- 



THE CATS PLAYGROUND : ROYAL LONDON INSTITUTION FOR STARVING 



CATS AT CAMDEN TOWN. 

 {Photo: Cassell &> Company. Limited.') 



(2) To provide a temporary home "for 

 lost cats. 



(3) To board cats at a moderate weekly 

 charge. 



The Camden Town Institution to which Her 

 Majesty the Queen has graciously given Her 

 Patronage, was founded by Mrs. Morgan in 

 1896, and up to the end of 1901 has received 

 the enormous number of 47,212 lost and 

 starving cats. The average received weekly 

 is 300, and in one day as many as 91 cats 



car is employed to go round and collect stray 

 cats, and will call at any house if due notice 

 has been given to the hon. manageress. It is 

 estimated that the number of cats in London 

 is close upon three quarters of a million, of 

 which from 80,000 to 100,000 are homeless. It 

 is during the summer months, when house- 

 holders leave town for their holidays, that poor 

 pussy is forsaken and forgotten, and no pro- 

 vision being made for her, she is forced to take 

 to the streets, where she seeks in vain to stalk 



