General Treatfnent of Cats 



Aeir duty is to keep rats and mice from eating postal 

 matter and mail sacks. Each city postmaster is al- 

 lowed from eight to forty dollars a year for the board 

 of his feline staff, sending his estimate for cat meat 

 to Washington at the beginning of each quarter. 



A beautiful cat is a very beautiful animal. Anato- 

 mists tell us that no animal possesses a body better 

 fitted for its special purpose, or with a greater strength 

 in proportion to its weight. To seek to bring such a 

 creature to the highest state of physical beauty is 

 therefore a worthy object. The fact that we are be- 

 stowing this trouble on one of the most useful of our 

 animal friends, makes it all the more worth while. At 

 the same time care should be taken not to develop 

 the physical qualities of the cat at the expense of the 

 moral. If we obtained beauty in exchange for the 

 domestic virtues of the cat, our loss would be great. 

 Many believe that the higher qualities of the dog have 

 been injured by the practice of breeders seeing only 

 a superficial excellence. A mongrel is often a more 

 intelligent animal than a pure-bred dog of the noblest 

 breed. 



The danger of injury to the character of the cat by 

 the practices of breeders arises from a somewhat dif- 

 ferent cause. He is an animal quickly driven to wild- 

 ness by neglect or by harsh and unsympathetic treat- 

 ment. Virtues developed through centuries of intimate 

 association with the household may be impaired or lost 

 in a single generation by a change in the conditions 



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