General Treatment of Cats 



pigeons and rats, but she usually needs education in 

 this matter. The whole thing in a nutshell is well 

 put in the following quatrain found in a news- 

 paper : — 



THE THREE MENUS 



She : — The cat has eaten our pet bird ; 

 He : — The wicked beast shall die. 



Then he resumed his quail on toast 



And she ate pigeon pie. 



Some people have a theory that cats will not catch 

 mice if they are well fed; that the only way to 

 "make a good mouser" is to compel her to depend 

 upon such game as she may catch for a living. Not 

 only is this untrue, for a good cat will catch a mouse 

 whenever and wherever he sees it, and whether he is 

 hungry or not, — but such treatment actually detracts 

 from her ability to serve as a rat-catcher. It has 

 been amply proved that a half-starved cat suffers a 

 direct weakening of the sense of smell. It is this 

 sense which tells the cat there is a mouse near by, 

 though out of sight ; and a starved cat is deficient in 

 the first necessity of what some people consider her 

 mission on earth. On the other hand, a well-fed cat 

 has this sense well developed, and her natural instinct 

 demands that no mouse shall escape uncaught. A 

 well-fed cat does not always eat the mice he catches ; 

 but I respect him the more for being somewhat epi- 

 curish. 



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