The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-24
BUB THE FATHERLY roMcAr.
Kittens, a Young Skunk, and Two
Gray Squirrels He Adopted.
From the New York Sun.

0TaV ne ADOPTED.
From the New York sun.
Scranton. July 2l.-A few weeks ago
Mrs. p. r. Bellows handsome tiger cat
Myra gave birth to four pretty kittens at
Mrs. Bellows pleasant residence in Lo-
Gust Grove, Silver Lake township. Bub,
a yearling son of Myra, made much of
the youngsters from the day of their
birth, cuddling up with them and his
mother, licking them and acting as if he
thought the kittens were the cunniuges5
little things he had ever seen. Within a
week the young tomcat became so much
attached to the little ones that he
wouldn't leave the nest for more than five
or ten minutes at a time, never going
away except when the old one was with
them.
When the kittens were eight days old,
Just before their eyes had begun to open
Mrs. Bellew decided to put them out of
the way with chloroform. The old cat
was absent when she had got everything
ready, but Bub was Struggled up with the
kittens, fusSing away and working his
paws as though the family belonged to
him. Mrs. Bellew tried TO coax Bub to
get out of the box and go away, but he
refused to bulge until she got a dead
mouse from the trap and held it over
him, when he sprang out and chased her
Mrs. Bellew shut him in, and while he
was amusing himself with the mouse she
placed the kittens in a tin basin lined
with cotton, saturated the cotton with
chloroform, and quickly covered the basin
with the lid of stone crock. In few
minutes the kittens were dead, and Mrs.
Bellew put them into a cigar box and
buried them in corner of the garden.
Mvra, who had been deprived of dozen
filters of kittens before, made no fuss
whatever when she returned to the empty
box. AS soon as she had found that the
kittens were gone she lay down on the
doorstep and went to sleep But Bub
acted in an entirely different way when
he hoped into the box and discovered
that the kittens had been removed. He
called to the lost little ones for several
minutes, Mrs. Bellew said, listening after
each call as though he expected to hear
their faint answer from some part of the
woodshed. On ascertaining that the kit
tens were not in hearing of his voice. Bub
leaped from the box mewed mournfully,
and began TO search around the piles of
wood and some barrels. Every little
while he would stop his noise and listen
for moment, and then he would go to
crying again as though he were almost
broken hearted.
After he had searched and called for
long time the sorrowful young tomcaJ
spied his mother sleeping in the sun, and,
trotting to her. he begged most piteously
for her to'help him hunt up the missing
kittens. The wise old cat knew from
long experience that it would be "a waste
of time to search for her kittens, So after
Bub had bothered her for two or three
minutes, she gave him a cuff and went to
sleep again.
Bub hunted all day for the kittens,
going from the cellar to the garrett, and
from the woodshed to the corn crib in his
vain search, His calls were so pitiful,
Mrs. Bellew said, that she felt grieved
over having made way with the kittens.
The next morning Bub resumed his
mournful calls about the house, making
such racket that Mr.. Bellew threatened
to knock him in the head.
Soon after breakfast Mrs. Bellew
missed the young cat, and toward noon
she saw him coming down the road from
the direction of an old hay barn with
something in his mouth. Bub trotted
into the woodshed, holding his, dead very
| high, jumped into the kitten box, and be-
gan to call to the old cat. Mrs, 3Bellew
ran to the box to see what Bub had got,
| and to her intense surprise she found that
he had captured tinyyoung skunk kit
ten not more than five or six DAYS old, and
that he was curled up with it and purring
as contentedly as he had been with his
llLJIS DfOGn6rs ana SISTERS the DAY before.
Presently the old cat came, took look
and sniff at the baby skunk, sized and
spit spitefully, and then went cantering
off to the wagon house as though she had
seen something that both angered and
frightened her. @st staS
The baby skunk's eyes were not open.
but Mrs. Bellew said it was as playful as
| kitten. After dinner Mr. Bellew took
it away from the fatherly tomcat and de-
stroyed it. He had tried in vain for a
month TO drive the old skunks from the
hay barn, and he felt certain that Bub
had found their nest. When MIR Bellew
! started to milk that evening he saw the
tomcat come from under the barn with
something in his mouth. Bub had cap
tured another baby skunk, but this time
the parent skunks were after him and
they headed him off in the middle of the
road and gave him such a hot fight that
he was compelled to drop the kitten and
turn tail. BY that time Mr.. Bellew had
got his shotgun, and he blazed away and
killed the old skunks and their kitten at
one shot.
1t was eight days before the tomcat
showed up again. and since then, Mrs
Bellew said, he has brought home two
live young gray squirrels and tried to be
father to them.