Cats in Towns. 47 
it is not easy to find excuse for the insensibility and thought- 
lessness of the heart that cares for the pet canary by taking it 
with the family, and leaves the cat to its fate. A populous town 
is not a place in which a cat can hunt for its own living with any 
prospect of success, so that provision must be made for it. 
How is this to be done? The habits and character of 
this half feral animal, it must be confessed, offer no small 
impediment. Cats, though seldom attaching themselves very 
strongly to individuals, have an extraordinary instinct of attach- 
ment to the locality where they have been brought up or have 
passed some years. While the dog is prepared to follow his 
master anywhere at a moment’s notice, without a second thought 
of home as such, the cat will often escape from the person for 
whom it has exhibited most affection, to return, if possible, to 
its familiar haunts. On the very day for leaving town, pussy 
may be away on urgent private affairs, and, it seems, must 
perforce be left to take her chance. It is easier, for obvious 
reasons, to deal with an unsexed cat, for in these cases, so far 
as my experience goes, the instinct of attachment to locality is 
much weaker than in others. He will at once settle down with 
the family, even in the street next to that in which he had 
formerly lived, showing little disposition to return to his old 
quarters, though he must know the way to them well enough. 
Common humanity dictates one of three methods of treat- 
ment. Hither a dose of prussic acid should be given, or the cat 
should be left in charge of some responsible person to be fed, 
with free access to water, or it should be taken with the family. 
In the last case, unless it be confined for a long time at the new 
abode, it will surely wander and be lost, and is then likely to 
suffer as much as if left behind. On the whole, the prussic acid 
treatment would probably insure the most satisfactory result. 
It seems to be forgotten that the effect on the cat is much the 
same whether it be abandoned to its fate out of doors or shut up 
in a room in the house to starve. In the latter case, the law 
would interfere with prompt punishment by imprisonment of 
the offender, while in the former nothing is done and little said. 
