THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



A comfortable sleeping box or basket should 

 be provided for each pen, filled in winter with 

 plenty of sweet hay, and in summer with sheets 

 of newspaper or brown paper. A cat loves to 

 repose on paper, and it has the advantage of 

 being cheaply renewable and easily burnt after 

 a day or two's use. Never use old packing 

 straw for bedding. It is frequently full of 

 infectious germs, and many skin complaints 

 have been traced to its use. Neither are 

 cushions, blankets, old bits of carpet, matting, 

 etc., to be recommended. They are apt to 

 become damp in prolonged wet weather, and 

 retain both dirt and odour. A sanitary tin 

 to hold dry earth or sawdust should be placed 

 in each cat house, emptied and washed out 

 every morning by the attendant, when the 

 floors are also swept out cr washed over. 



A fair-sized window, to open, must be in 

 the front, and a door, the upper half of which 

 might also be of glass, to open out into a gravel 

 run. Outside wooden shutters for cold nights 

 are a great help in keeping the house warm, and 

 should be provided. 



Having arranged our first room, the playing 

 room, B, next must come under consideration. 

 This being the central division, the felt lining 

 could here be dispensed with, and instead the 

 boards can either be plainly stained and var- 

 nished which is also easy to keep perfectly 

 clean or Willesden damp-proof paper might 

 be nailed over the walls. This paper, made 

 at the Willesden Company's works, Willesden 

 Junction, N.W., is made in several good 

 colours for interior lining, and a house so hung 

 looks very comfortable, and shows to advan- 

 tage such mural decorations as show prize 

 cards, photos of winners, etc. The frontage 

 of this room is to be entirely glazed, in small 

 panes set in a wooden framework, with a 

 6-inch high weather board at floor to protect 

 from draughts, the glass protected on the 

 inside by wire netting fastened over it. A 

 window here to open outwards with a bolt, 

 and fairly high up, to ensure fresh air in rainy 

 weather without the wet and damp driving 

 in on a level with the cats ; a half-glass door 

 also to run, but no outside shutters will be 



here needed, the cats net occupying this room 

 at night. Cover the asphalt floor with lino- 

 leum or oilcloth, and put up some shelves 

 15 inches wide, fairly high up, but within 

 leaping distance, against the walls ; a mov- 

 able bench too, to place the cats upon fcr 

 brushing and attending to them. Old chairs 

 that can be spared from the house might end 

 their service here ; or if the luxury of a plain 

 wicker chair could be permitted, and furnished 

 with one or two cushions in washable slip 

 covers, it would be as pleasant for the owner 

 when making her visits as for the pussies them- 

 selves. A ball for the kittens, a reel hanging 

 from a string, will stimulate healthy romps, 

 even amongst the staid grown-up cats, when 

 weary of indoor dozing. 



Room C C is primarily intended for the 

 interesting occasions when new little prize- 

 winners are -expected. This is subdivided by- 

 wire as in sleeping-room, but the partition three 

 feet from back wall should be of wood, to ensure 

 privacy to the anxious mother, and to temper 

 the light ; oilcloth on floor. 



For the littering nests themselves I describe, 

 and advise my friends to make trial of, the 

 following plan. Have a sort of shallow 

 wooden box, or tray with sides, made about 

 4 feet 6 inches long by 24 inches high and 

 4-inch sides. This is stained, varnished, and 

 mounted on wooden feet at the four corners 

 about two inches high ; a good bed of hay 

 is put in it, the box is put in a quiet 

 corner away from the light, and a truss of 

 new straw placed upright at one end of ^he 

 box, leaning against the angle of the wall. A 

 little of the straw at the bottom may be 

 pulled out to suggest the idea of a hole to 

 the cat ; but as a rule she takes to the noticn 

 brilliantly, and will set to work to dig out a 

 nest for herself with the greatest zest. In 

 this the kittens are born, safe in a cosy nest 

 at the end of a tunnel of straw. There is ample 

 ventilation; they ore protected from all 

 draughts, so that doors may be left open 

 to the fresh air with impunity ; and they rnv 

 in the dark, as kittens naturally should be till 

 they walk out into the daylight of their own 



