258 HOME AND GARDEN 



makes a beautiful " tuck-under " to invite a good 

 stroking. I always respond and encourage the 

 pretty trick ; a sort of dive of the head and a half 

 roll over, bringing his beautifully-kept white waist- 

 coat and shirt-front uppermost — a gesture peculiar 

 to a good-natured and well-brought-up pussy. It 

 is an expression of perfect confidence. It always 

 seems to say : " I make a polite bow, and put myself 

 in the most helpless attitude, and offer my finest 

 and softest fur for your kind stroking. You see 

 my paws are half curled inwards, and my claws are 

 all put away in their black velvet pads." 



Pinkieboy is a big heavy cat, silver tabby and 

 white; that is to say, the groundwork of his large 

 black tabby markings is a cool silver-grey, not a 

 brownish colour. Part of his face is white, and he 

 has a good deal of white underneath, and white 

 hind-legs and fore-paws. 



Tittlebat is a cat of rather lighter build, without 

 any white. Dark tabby as to face and legs, with 

 unusually distinct black markings. The top of his 

 head, instead of having close parallel stripes, is all 

 black, his back is also all black. His ears are of a 

 dark cool umber colour richly shaded to the tips. 

 His sides are curiously marked with a close vertical 

 brindling of black, about three stripes to the inch, 

 on a pepper and salt ground. His coat is the finest 

 and smoothest I ever saw or felt, so that in some 

 lights, reflecting the sky, he looks as if he was 



