The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-08-15
PUssYSAvED THE BaBY.
Gave Battle to n venomoua Snake That
 Was About to strike.

| Gave Battle to n yenomous snnke Thnt Was About to strike.
 | (From the Courier Journal.l
 | A house cat saved child from being
 bitten by a poisonous snake yesterday
 morning. With jump of over six feet
 pussy leaped upon the reptile and with
 one snap bit the snake almost in two.
 But the snake was not killed by the bite. and a terrific battle between the
 reptile and the cat followed. which was
 only ended by the arrival of woman.
 who cut the snakes head off with a garden hoe.
 The fight occurred in the garden of l Antone Dienes. who lives at Twenty ninth and Market streets. He has a
 little daughter. Lizzie. who Is five years
 old. Some time ago a stray cat. about
 year old. wandered into Mir Dienes'
 house. Every effort was made to drive the cat away. but without success. It
 was a very vicious cat and several times when MT. Dienes tried to throw the cat from the yard 1t scratched him.
 The cat was finally allowed to stay at | the house. The gray animal seemed to take a fancy to Dienes' little daughter
 Lizzie and followed her wherever she
 went It was always affectionate to
 this child. but whenever anyone else
 tried to handle the cat she scratched. About Il o'clock yesterday morning
 the little girl started back into the gar
 den to play among the flowers. The
 cat followed closely at her heels, and
 when the child sat down to play in the loose earth about bed of flowers the cat lay down about six feet distant un.
 der a bush. The child played about for
 several minutes, and when she hap pened to look around she found a snake nearly three feet long coiled up right
 behind her and ready to strike. For several seconds the child could not ut- ter word. Then she gave a piercing scream, which brought her mother Mrs Len Fenster, a next-door neigh bor
 When Lizzie screamed the cat jump-
 ed the six feet as easily as boy steps over muddy gutter. The cat struck the ground right at the side of the snake and fastened it's teeth in the snakes body at about the middle, while the child rolled, screaming with fright,
 to one side. The first bite of the cat al-
 most severed the snakes tail from its
 head, but his snakeship was not dead yet by any means, and he struck out vii ciously at the nimble cat. Pussy would
 bite and jump back. with the snake striking at her all the while Both Mrs. .~f saw the fight, but they had nothing with which to kill the snake. and Mrs, Fenster ran back to her house after a garden hoe. But the cat and snake kept up their fight. The cat would jump around until the snakes head would dart out at it. Then pussy would jump in and bite and jump out of harms way before the snake could strike again. His snakeship was rap- idly getting the worst of the fight when Mrs. Fenster came back with the hoe She immediately chopped the reptiles head off, and that was the end of him.
 An examination of the snake showed that 1t had been bitten at least twenty times. The first bite of the. cat had been the most effective, as the snakes body hung together only by shreds. The cat was not hurt and was looking well, except where the hair was ruff1ed up. The ground about the scene of the battle was clawed and bloody. Mir. Dienes described the snake as short and thick. with a brown back and wide head. From his description the reptile was probably viper. Mir. ho ~A with the cat now for anything.