Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1886-09-15
Three Connecticut Cats.

mainly to routine business this year
but here and there is one that shows a
trace of genius. Mr.. Amos f. Cobb of
Norwich. has a remarkable young cat.
1t ignores mice entirely. 1t will have
nothing but red squirrels. It goes out
into the woods each morning and
catches one red squirrel. One squirrel
lasts for a whole days meals. The
hind quarters serve for breakfast, the
forequarte1s for dinner, and the cat ia
pers off her appetite by picking the
hide and head for supper. 1t is hard
work to catch a red squirrel mapping,
and the cat realizes that one squirrel
must 60 a long way. She brings all
her catches to the house, and the back
yard is strewn with red squirrel skins
turned wrong side out. Mr., Cobb has
in his veranda a lot of wire cages, all
communicating with each other and
provided with play wheels, and in the
cages are sixteen squirrels which he
has caught in traps. The cat often sits
for an hour near the cages with her
eyes closed and with a very benevo-
lent expression or her face, and acct
IDENTIFY she lets her paw fall inside the
wire for the squirrel to play with.
Pooling with that sleepy looking paw
has nearly cost three squirrels their
lives. She has not got one of the
wired squirrels yet, but she has hope,
and spends an hour each day before
the age
Arthur Keller of Preston has a cat
that catches partridges. She gets
about one a week. When she cannot
catch a partridge, mice, birds, ground
moles, and rats are good enough for
her. Now and then she takes big flying
grasshoppers and flies off a window
pane. 1t is worth the price of a ticket
to a dime museum, Mr.. Keller thinks,
to see his cat chase a flying grasshop-
per. The grasshopper starts off flushed
with hope and with a satirical tlutter
and buzz that manifests its opinion of
thing on legs trying to run down a thing
that has both legs and wings. The
grasshopper sails away in a sidelong
direction about a dozen rods
and pumps down in the grass with a
wiry cherp that is meant to1say to the
cat that the grasshopper a make that
little skip not less than twenty times
and not get tired, but rather enjoy it.
The cat however means business, and,
with tail erect and claws outspread, is
at the first way station almost as soon
as the grasshopper has %alighted. The
g%rasshopper has to get up again and
be off with an alacrity that takes it's
breath away, and before it has taken
half a dozen flights it is a very surprised
and serious looking grasshopper, that
blindly dashes il a ri gzag way before
the pursuing cat. At the end of the
sixth or seventh innings the cat gener-
ally nails her prey to the ground in the
stubble. A fat flying grasshopper
makes a dainty lunch for a cat.
Rhode Island cats are noted
for longevity. In other States cats
that are not chewed up by other cats
die of old age before they are ten years
old. They stay out too late at night
IN fences and shed roofs at the ex-
pense Of their emotional natures, and
their vitality is early exhausted.
Rhode Island cats are less frivolous.
They keep their heads cool and do not
overwork themselves at night. Henry
Cliff of Ivy Hill, in that State, owns a
cat that is IS years old, and her
faculties are all perfect. Age has
etched her whiskers' ends and the fringe
of fur along her sides with peculiar de-
signs in pink, hence Mr.. Cliff calls her
''Pinkey.' In other respects she is in
a normal feline condition. Mr.. Cliff
takes excellent care of this cat. and he
does not require that she shall carr her
own living. She lives on the fat of his
larder and takes only one stroll around
the house daily for exercise. She scorns
mice and all other cheap, coarse food.
A mouse might run between her feet
and she would not take the trouble to
step on him. All she has TO do is to
sit on the veranda, close her eyes, and
look wise. MI. Cliff hopes to keep her
alive until she is 20 years old. II is be-
lieved that Pinkey Is the oldest cat in
Rhode Island.