ANOTHER CAT STORY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Here is another instance of that " disinterested affection" which your correspondent " G." thinks that cats show so rarely. Some years ago my husband was dangerously ill, and our old cat (like T.'s) refused to leave him. We went in and out of his room through a dressing-room, keeping both doors ajar to avoid noise. The nurse thought a cat's presence out of the question in a sick-room, and so Old Puss took up her position on her friend's (" master's " would be a misnomer) doormat, where she sat quietly for days. Then she could bear it no longer, and, with a cat's supple but invincible determination, she made her way into the room and stayed there. The nurses were doubtful, but I said she was to be allowed to remain. She seemed to know that he was too ill to take any notice of her, and did not jump on to his bed as usual; and later, when he was eating the fish and game of convalescence, she still remained on the hearthrug, and never asked him for food, even when he was alone, and she could have done as she liked. This was in sharp contrast to her ways when he was well, for then she would sit on the arm of his chair at dinner watching his plate, and when she thought he had eaten enough she would tap his arm till he gave her something. She was a cat who liked to manage and direct, and she kept a very tight hand over her children, even after they were grown up. This led to quarrels, especially with one of her daughters, but all differences would be made up over grandchildren, and the old cat used to bring mice to her daughter when she eould not hunt for herself, and sit and watch her eat them, with the queerest look of satisfaction on her face. Some years before the time of which I have written, when we also had a baby, I happened to be alone in the nursery with the tenmonths-old child and the cat. The bottle was not quite ready, but the baby was, and asked for it loudly, whereupon the old cat jumped up mewing loudly too, to call my attention to what she recognized as a hunger-cry, and which she thought, from her insistent pawings, that I was very slow in attending to. I shall never forget how difficult it was to pacify cat and baby and get the bottle ready at the same time. The old cat has been dead for many yeais, but one of her sons is living at the good old age of 17i years. He is particularly devoted. to our daughter, and shows marked depression when she is away from home, and equally marked pleasure when she comes back. I could tell of his restlessness when she had influenza last year, and we kept him out of the room for fear of infection, but I have already rambled on for too long about our own "preciousnesses."—I am, Sir, &c., F. S.
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