SOME NOTABLE CATTERIES. 



" I have always been lucky with black cats, 

 both long- and short-haired ; but I especially 

 love white Persians, and, in fact, at one time 

 I owned a ' white cattery.' I may say I still 

 have some good specimens namely, ' Muse- 

 fer,' ' Queen of the Pearls,' and ' Lily.' I love 

 the imported cats, and always get them when 

 I can. I have nine now at Kepwick. One 

 of these hails from Patagonia and one from 

 Afghanistan. My cat- 

 tery at one time was 

 twice again as full as 

 now ; but my losses 

 have been great, and 

 I have reduced the 

 numbers so that I 

 may give more atten- 

 tion to the young 

 stock. 



" It is only recently 

 I have really gone in 

 for orange Persians, 

 encouraged by the 

 wins of ' Puck ' at the 

 Botanical. I love this 

 beautiful variety, but 

 consider the queens 

 of this breed very deli- 

 cate. I have owned 

 some fine blues at 

 different times, and 

 purchased for 25 a 

 beautiful fellow, bred 

 from ' Beauty Boy,' 

 at the Crystal Palace 

 many years ago ; but, 



alas ! he came home only to die. Fore- 

 most amongst my blues ranked my late 

 Champion ' Monarch,' who held the Beresford 

 Cup. Of late years I have taken up silvers. 

 My first Chinchilla was Champion ' Nizam,' 

 ancestor of such cats as ' St. Anthony ' and 

 ' Ameer.' I bought ' Nizam ' at the Crystal 

 Palace in the early days of silvers, and he only 

 took second prize, because, I was assured, he was 

 ' too light ' for first. I have a few Russians. 

 I am most devoted to my pussies, and have 

 tried to persevere in breeding good stock in 



this time, however, 



MRS. MACKENZIE STEWART'S CATTERY 



the face of very great difficulties. I do not 

 much care about running the risk of showing, 

 but a true fancier likes to support all well- 

 arranged cat shows." 



Mrs. Collingwood, of Leighton Buzzard, is a 

 most ardent lover of cats, but it is only of 

 recent years that she has been before the 

 public as a fancier and exhibitor. During 

 many have been the 

 honours showered on 

 the lucky inmates of 

 the Bossington cat- 

 tery. 



Mrs. Collingwood 

 has great difficulty, 

 so she tells me, in 

 keeping her number 

 of cats down to about 

 thirty ! She likes 

 these to be equally 

 divided between long- 

 and short-haired pus- 

 sies ; so there are 

 all sorts and varieties. 

 Blues have been great 

 favourites, and Mrs. 

 Collingwood is on 

 the Blue Persian Cat 

 Society Committee. 

 " Royal Bobs," a big, 

 massive blue male, 

 has done a lot of 

 winning. He was 

 bred by the Princess 

 Victoria of Schleswig- 

 Holstein. His sister 



" Jill " also inhabits one of the twelve cat- 

 houses distributed over five acres of the 

 Bossington grounds. These smaller houses 

 are mostly on wheels. The larger houses are 

 kept for females and their families, and some- 

 times a corner of the hay-loft is set apart for 

 a nursing mother. The male cats have their 

 liberty during the morning, and then the 

 females enjoy their afternoons out. Mrs. 

 Collingwood does not keep a stud cat, but there 

 are neuter pets that have their run about the 

 house, and have their meals in a corner of the 



