Concerning Cats 



Surrey. Mrs. Herring's Champion Jimmy is very well 

 known as a first prize-winner in many shows. He is 

 a short-haired, exquisitely marked silver tabby val- 

 ued at two thousand pounds (;^io,ooo). 



Another feline celebrity also well known to fre- 

 quenters of English cat shows, is Madame L. Portier's 

 magnificent and colossal Blue Boy, whose first appear- 

 ance into this world was made on the day sacred to 

 St. Patrick, 1895. He has a fine pedigree, and was 

 raised by Madame Portier herself. Blue Boy com- 

 menced his career as a show cat, or rather kitten, at 

 three months old, when he was awarded a first prize, 

 and when the judge told his mistress that if he ful- 

 filled his early promise he would make a grand cat. 

 This he has done, and is now one of the finest 

 specimens of his kind in England. He weighs over 

 seventeen pounds, and always has aifixed to his cage 

 on the show-bench this request, " Please do not lift 

 this cat by the neck ; he is too heavy." He has long 

 dark blue fur, with a ruff of a lighter shade and bril- 

 liant topaz eyes. Already Blue Boy has taken many 

 prizes. He is a gelded cat and one of the fortunate 

 cats who have " Not for Sale " after their names in 

 the show catalogues. 



To Mrs. C. Hill's beautiful long-haired Patrick 

 Blue fell the honor, at the Crystal Palace Show in 

 1896, of a signed and framed photograph of the 

 Prince of Wales, presented by his Royal Highness 

 for the best long-haired cat in the show, irrespective 



