THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
chance to express his helping instinct. His home 
may be very delightful, but if he has never been 
able to show what is in him, he will not be com- 
pletely happy. I do not wonder that occasionally 
such dogs slip into bad company and bad ways. 
If we will take the trouble to get rid of bad breeds 
of cats, and cultivate only the best results of ani- 
mal evolution, I think we shall find that we have 
something better than a mere mouser. A friend 
of mine tells me of his cat, that enjoys nothing 
better than fishing, often landing a perch or pick- 
erel or bass weighing ‘three or four pounds. This 
cat has learned to associate his fishing propensi- 
ties with the family larder, for he never attempts to 
eat the fish that he catches, but carries it home and 
lays it at his mistress’s feet. He generally hunts 
alone, but sometimes starts out with the family dog, 
and they will occasionally return with about an 
equal share of game —not unfrequently par- 
tridges. I had myself a beautiful maltese, who 
would ride on my shoulder to a pond where frogs 
abounded, and would leap from my shoulder and 
catch a victim much more quickly than I could get 
it in any other way. A reliable story reaches me 
of a cat at Stockton, California, whose mistress has 
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