Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-13
WHAT Ais THE KITTEN?

| am a little girl only eight years old and |
| have a little pet kitten only four months
| old. We have lived in Texas less than d
| year. My kitten is the sweetest little
| thing you ever saw, but something ais it,
| We take The GAZETTE and we always read
| the agricultural page the first thing and my
| ma said if | would write YOU letter YOU
! would tell me what allied my kitten. Pa
| said you would not pay attention TO such
| small things, but ma said she was sure you
| would by letter, if | would send stamp to
| pay the postage. So l have put in the
! stamp.
| My little kitten is well enough all the
! time, only once in while il gets to running
! about the house like something terrible was
| after it, and seems TO be scared almost to
| death. II hides away behind something
| and | can hardly get it out, and when | do
| get 1t out 1t runs again as scared as ever.
! and keeps on running until II finds some
| other place to hide. 1t don't appear to
| know me at all. | am SO sorry! The
neighbors say we ought to kill it, as it is
going mad, but [ can't bear to have it
killed, for | love it so much, ami it is such
sweet little kitten when these spells are
not on ii. The spells don't come very often
| not so often as once week. If you can let
| me know what ails my kitten and what to
forget you. MINNIE BYRUM
Fort Worth, Text
We can tell you all about it, and since
there are probably other little girls in Texas
having the same trouble with their pet
kittens that you're having We'll tell it
through THE GAZETTE.
There is in Texas little animal known
as 4 scorpion. Many of the Texas people
call it ''the singing lizard" II is not
CHI ~,
looks somewhat like small ''crawfsh,"
such as one sees in tie creeks, though, IN
ike the crawfsh (crafish), it has a long,
slim tail, on the end of which is sting. OF
course it has a scientific name, but little
girl like you would not be apt to care much
for hard Latin words. still, since you may
cut this out, put 1t into your scrap book and
keep it until you are older, the scientific
name might then interest you so we will
give it. The scientific name of the scorpion
common in Texas is Scorpio boreus.
Little kittens like yours take great de-
light in catching and devouring srasshop-
pers and other similar insects. If your kit
ten is allowed to run out in the yard, you
have no doubt laughed many times to see it
catch grasshoppers and swallow them down
almost without chewing, and TO see it leap
several feet in the air after passing dragon
fiies-you may call them ':spiudles' or
''mosquito hawks If it catches the dragon
fly it gives it two or three '!cronches''
aud the dragon fly is swallowed. Well,
this is just the way your kitten does with
scorpions when it chaaces to find them, but
it don't get off so well as in the case of
either the grasshopper or the dragon fly. The
scorpion stings the kitten either in the
mouth, the throat or the stomach. The
sting is an extremely painful one-worse
than that of the bee or wasp-and while un-
der the effect of this fearful pain the kitten
runs and hides about as you describe. So
intense is the pain that it sometimes throws
kittens into spasms, causing them to lie
almost as if dead for considerable time.
In the course of few hours the pain sub
sides and the kitten gets ali right again.
And now we'll tell you how we found all
this out. We have children at our own
home, and they have two little kittens not
far from the age Of yours. Those kittens
were now and then affected as yours has
been affected, and that set Us to studying
for cause of the trouble. One morning
one of the kittens was seen 10 catch and
swallow a scorpion, and very soon after
wards it began the wild running that your
kitten has been taking. This gave us
clew. as they say. Not long after this per-
sons of our acquaintance killed kitten
affected in the same way under the impress
sion that it might be going mad. We ex-
smined that dead Kitten (how. we need not
tell you), and fov1d that It had eaten .