Looking them over, with fire almost 
snapping from her little eyes, she de- 
cided that each and every one of them 
were to blame because she had been 
punished. 
EACHING up with one paw she 
dragged the box down and pro- 
ceeded to scatter them all over the room. 
Hearing her mistress coming back she 
ran back to the kitchen and getting 
into her box she acted as though noth- 
ing was wrong. She was led back to 
the scene of desolation and again cuffed 
| soundly. This was her first and most 
lasting lesson in knowing that when 
she was told to let a certain article 
-alone, she was to leave it alone and 
she never forgot it. 
Two full grown dogs also made the 
ranch their home. Topsy decided that 
they would make good playmates, but 
/ the dogs did not at first like the scent 
| of bear and would bark. This seemed 
, to frighten her almost into fits. She 
would approach them, showing friendly 
playful signs and trying her best to 
make friends with them. As soon as 
the dogs had been taught not to bark at 
| 
| 


her they easily made up, although the 
dogs were jealous of her and when they 
would find her on the lap of anyone 
around the house they would try to 
crowd her off and take her place. ‘She 
soon came to know that she was the 
favored pet, but never lost her fear ot 
the dog’s bark. 
One of these dogs was quite old and 
was a crab like old people we have seen. 
'Topsy’s delight seemed to be to catch 
this old fellow asleep and slipping up 
very quietly, jump onto him. He knew 
better than to fight back, because he had 
been scolded for it and she knew that 
she could get away with it and when- 
ever the opportunity afforded she took 
advantage of it. One evening just at 
dusk the old dog was lying out in the 
yard apparently asleep. Topsy notic- 
ing him, commenced stalking him for 
her playful leap, but the old dog 
smelled her and just as she was ready 
to pounce onto him, he gave a deep 
growl. She understood the language 
of a growl better than most people and 
beating a hasty retreat under the house 
stayed there for half an hour. 


) A WATERING trough was kept for 
) the horses and discovering this she 
immediately adopted it for her bath tub, 
bathing and playing in the water several 
times a day. On being taken for a day 
to a neighbor’s place where no watering 
trough was used she found a water bar- 
rel standing under the eaves filled with 
water. She dived into this and turning 
‘would come up head first every time. 
Crossing the creek returning home 
that evening, she ran over to a deep 
hole and dove in, going to the bottom 

* 
in twelve feet of water and keeping her- 
self there, lying on her back by a gentle 
motion of all four feet upward, for fif- 
teen or twenty seconds. 
In about three months she had grown 
from about two pounds to twenty and 
was consuming in addition to four 
quarts of milk a day, some solids such 
as cakes and fruits. Current bushes 
were grown on the ranch and she used 
to search them all over looking for ber- 
ries. No one had taught her this, neither 
had she ever seen & berry in her life, 
yet the instinct was there. The orchard 
was her favorite tree-climbing place. 
The apple trees were filled with green 
apples, and climbing up into one of 
these she would have a lot of fun claw- 
ing the apples off and watching them 
roll on the ground. Such pranks as 
this caused the people to give her to the 
writer and she has been his fast friend 
ever since. 
HE evening we drove over after her, 
the truck had hardly stopped until 
she was up in the driver’s seat and 
all over the truck. She seemed to know 
what a collar was and would not per- 
mit any of us to put one around her 
neck. It was a problem how we were 
going to get her home, when finally the 
idea was hit upon of turning a large box 
upside down on the floor of the truck 
and placing sugar underneath it. She 
was called over and when she was under 
the box eating the sugar we tipped the 
box over her. Excitement commenced 
right then, for she clawed, bit and 
pounded and squalled until one thought 
they had boxed up a whole family of 
wildcats. It was eleven miles back 
home and she fought every mile of it 
and two of us were required to hold the 
box down on top of her, and she only 
weighed a bare twenty pounds then. 
Arriving home quite late we decided to 
wire and rope the box down to the floor 
of the truck until morning and in an 
hour or so she quieted down and remain- 
ed so until about five the next morning 
when we went out to release her. We 
decided that she had better be tied up 
for a day or so until she became ac- 
customed to 
her new home. 
Slipping a rope 
between the 
cracks of the 



By June, Topsy had taken on some weight. 
box we managed to get it around her 
neck and when the box was raised 
things happened fast. 
HE had never been tied before. She 
was hungry and was among stran- 
gers. Handing her a bottle of milk I was 
surprised to have it knocked from my 
hand. All of us then grabbed her and 
exchanged the rope for a strong chain 
and collar because she would have 
gnawed the rope and been loose in no 
time. I did not want her to get away, 
alone in the woods, where very likely 
she would have starved to death, be- 
cause she never knew anything but hu- 
man care since she could remember. 
Changing from fresh milk to the canned 
variety did not improve her temper in 
the least and I began to see that some- 
thing had to be done, otherwise I would 
keep on until I was badly clawed by 
her. The next time she slapped the 
bottle from my hands I gave her a good, 
sound thrashing but instead of the box- 
ing cowing her she came back for more 
and would come at me with her mouth 
wide open and all four paws, with claws 
extended, looking for a chance to get 
me. A bear’s nose is a very tender 
spot and a person who has the nerve 
can face a wild black or brown bear in 
the woods with no more formidable 
weapon that a good stout stick, and 
watching his chances can bring this 
down across the upper part of the 
bridge of the bear’s nose and very easily 
knock the bear unconscious. 
I did not want to do this with the 
little cub unless she forced the issuc, 
but picking up a light stick I aimed 
for the bridge of the nose. She saw it 
coming in time to dodge it, but it caught 
her on the tip of the nose and made a 
few drops of blood flow. Up until this 
time she had been making quite hostile 
sounds which were not at all hard to in- 
terpret as meaning fight and still more 
fight, but when the stick brought a few 
drops of blood she immediately called for 
mercy and got it and came and let me 
put my arms around her like a child. 
From that day until this she has never 
offered to fight me, in fact she acts more 
like a well-behaved child. This did 
not break her spirit by any means and 
I believe that if I should hurt her in- 
tentionally, and be in the wrong when 
I did it, I would get hurt. 
Tpke months later she was getting 
rid of six quarts of milk a day in 
addition to two pounds of cake, a couple 
of pounds of raw potatoes, carrots and 
cabbage, besides all the fresh lettuce 
leaves I would bring her. When she saw 
me starting down the trail she was right 
after me because she knew that wild 
raspberries grew in abundance all 
around and that I would pick them for 
her. 
455 
