Concerning Cats 



word of a stranger at random. He investigates their 

 circumstances and character, and never gives away 

 an animal unless he can be reasonably sure of its 

 going to a good home. For instance, he once received 

 an application from one man for six cats. The whole- 

 sale element in the order made him slightly suspi- 

 cious, and he immediately drove to Boston, where he 

 found that his would-be customer owned a big granary 

 overrun with mice. He sent the six cats, and two 

 weeks later went to see how they were getting on, 

 when he found them living happily in a big grain- 

 loft, fat and contented as the most devoted Sultan of 

 Egypt could have asked. None but street cats and 

 stray dogs, homeless waifs, ill-treated and half starved, 

 are received at this home. Occasionally, some family 

 desiring to get rid of the animal they have petted for 

 months, perhaps years, will send it over to the Shel- 

 tering Home. But if Mr. Perkins can find where it 

 came from he promptly returns it, for even this place, 

 capable of comfortably housing a hundred cats and 

 as many dogs, cannot accommodate all the unfortu- 

 nates-^Jiat are picked up in the streets of Boston. 

 The accommodations, too, while they are comfortable 

 and even luxurious for the poor creatures that have 

 hitherto slept on ash-barrels and stone flaggings, are 

 unfit for household pets that have slept on cushions, 

 soft rugs, and milady's bed. 



There is a dog-house and a cat-house, sufficiently 

 far apart that the occupants of one need not be dis- 



192 



