CHAPTER VI 



CONCERNING CATS IN ENGLAND 



IF the growing fancy for cats in tliis country is 

 benefiting the feline race as a whole, they have 

 to thank the English people for it. For certain cats 

 in England are held at a value that seems preposter- 

 ous to unsophisticated Americans. At one cat and' 

 bird show, held at the Crystal Palace, near London, 

 some of the cats were valued at thirty-five hundred 

 pounds sterling (^17,500) — as much as the price of 

 a first-class race-horse. 



For more than a quarter of a century National Cat 

 Shows have been held at Crystal Palace and the 

 Westminster Aquarium, which have given great stim- 

 ulus to the breeding of fine cats, and "catteries" 

 where high-priced cats and kittens are raised are 

 common throughout the country. 



England was the first, too, to care for lost and 

 deserted cats and dogs. At Battersea there is a 

 Temporary Home for both these unfortunates, where 

 between twenty and twenty-five thousand dogs and 

 cats are sheltered and fed. The objects of this 

 home, which is supported entirely by voluntary sub- 

 scriptions, are to restore lost pets to their owners, to 



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