Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-17
WHAT Ais THE KITTEN?

| am u little girl only eight wears old and
] have little pet kitten only four months
old. We have lived in Texas less than a
! year. My kitten is the sweetest little
thing you ever saw, but something ais it.
| We take The GAZsTTB and we always read
| the agricultural page the first thing, and my
| ma said if l 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 S1re YOU
would hysletter, IL would send 16tamp to
pay the postage. So L have PUT in the
time only once in While it. ets to running mi i
about the house like sometl ing terrible was
afterit, and seems to bS Scared almost to
desth. It hides away ehind something
and ! car hardly get but, and when do
and keeps on running until it finds somk
other place TO hid 1t don't appear to
know me at all. 7 am so sorry! The
| neighbors say we ought to kill it, as it is
going mad. but I can't bear to have it
| killed, for love it so much, and it is such a
sweet little kitten when these spells are
| not on it. The spells don't come very often
not so often as once week If you can let
! ME know what ais my kitten and what to
do for it. l will be SO glad that will neveE.
forget you. MINNIE BIgSaes'
Fort Worth, Text sssssssfEss
We can tell you all Ahe0ft, and since
there are probahly,ssiesr little girls in Texas
having thessafhe trouble with their pet
kittspsehat you're having we'll tell it
|eehfough The GAZETTE.
There is in Texas little animal known
as a scorpion. Many Of the Texas people
call it 1.-THE singing lizard" It is not
larger than large grasshopper, and in
looks somewhat like a small ''crawfsh,"
such as one sees in tt e creeks, though IN
like the crswfsh (crafashf, it has a long,
slim tail, on the end ofwhien is q sting. OF
course it has a scientific name. but little
girl Like you weqlsssst spt TO care much
for tar5.L Latin words. still, since you mayl
cusshis opt, puff into your scrap book aY
ZIP it until yous are older, the scien1 6c
fame might ben interest you, 50 ws kin
five itS The Hientifc name Of the SGD pion
c6mfnanfn TeSasjs Seerpfo boreus.
.vsLfttle kittens Ike yours take great de-
light in catching and devouring grasshop-
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
fties-you may call them ssspindles" or
mosquito hawks" II it catches the dragon
fly it gives it two or three ''crouches'
and the dragon fly ia 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 OF the drago 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 I'M
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 a considerable time
In the course Of few hours the pain. sub
sides and tho kitten gets all right again.
And now Wen 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
WIN oAS''S"' "nu e'iAs oce 10 W Studying
for cause Of the trouble. One morning
one Of the kittens was seen to catch and
swallow scorpion, and very soon after
wards it began the wild running that your
kitten has been taking. This gave US a
clew. as they say. Not long after this per-
sons Of our acquaintance killed q kitten
affected in the same way under the impress
sion that it might be going mad. We ex-
ahmed that dead kitten chow, we need not
tell yeu), and found that it had eaten