The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-02-16
ANIMALS. BEDS.
They Are Chosen with Care and Some
show 10 Fastidious Taste.


show - Fastidious Taste.
We have seen little dachshund
which would not go to her basket until
the blanket had been held to the hall
stove. This she required to be done in
summer as well as winter, though the
stove was not lighted. A spaniel, kept
in stable, used always to leave its
kennel to sleep with the horse. Hounds
make a joint bed on the bench after q
long run, lying back to back, and SO
supporting one another. But sporting
dogs should have proper beds made
like shallow boxes with sloping sides.
They are far more rested in the morn
ing than II simply left to lie on straw.
This was noted by clever old
| Devonshire clergyman, great
sportsman, who observed that his
best retrieving spaniel used always rs
get into an empty wheelbarrow to sleep
when tired. The dogs bed should be "a
rough reproduction of the barrow. with
out the wheel. The poet Cowper's cat.
the "Pensive Selma" was not alone in
her taste for making bed in such odd
places as watering pots and open draw
ers. Cats are the most obstinately ca
pricious, in their fancies about their
beds, of any domestic creature. They
will follow a particular rug or shawl
from room to room, il it be removed. in
order to sleep on it, or insist on the
use of one chair, until they get their
way, and then for some reason take
fancy to another. The cleanliest of all
animals, anything newly washed or
-. a..
just the thing for n bed. A nicely
aired newspaper lying on the floor or
in chair, or linen fresh from the wash,
is almost irresistible.
Outdoor cats seek warm as well as
a tidy bed. The writer was once much
surprised when passing through
large ship-building yard, to see cat
fast asleep, lying, it seemed, on mud
dy path. But the spot which the cat
had selected for its couch was one at
which hot steampipe passed under
the road, and the mud was there
baked into a warm dry cake, which
made not only clean but an artifi-
cially heated sleeping-place. But the
oldest taste in beds developed by cat
was that entertained.by very highly
bred gray Angora, which was justly
petted and admired by the family in
which it lived. For some months it
would only sleep in or upon a hat if
such could be found, ladies' hats be-
ing preferred. If it could discover one
with the inside upper most it would
lie inside it. If not, such was its love
for this form of couch it would curl it.
self round the brim, and with it's long
furry tail and plant body made
n fine winter trimming to sum-
mer hat. BY some accident,
drawer in which all the summer hats
had been disposed for the winter was
left open for some days, after which it
was discovered that all the hats had
been tried in turn, the cat having final
ly selected one adorned with white la
burnum flowers, which never recovered
from the ironing to which it had
been subjected.
Even the animals of the farm have
certain preferences in their sleeping
arrangements Cattle and sheep, when
left out to 'lie rough" always sleep
under trees to avoid the dew; and l.
sheep, if there is no such cover availa-
bic, lie on the highest, and conse-
quently the dryest, ground. Horses
seem less particular, though they have
curious fancies as to their bed-litter in
stables. 1t would be interesting to
know what is the horses point of view
as to the substitution of ''moss-litter'
for straw, which the rise in the price
of the latter has brought into such
general use But, perhaps, the harder
animals are right. A rise in the stand
ara of comfort" is not an unmixed
blessing even to their owners. London
Spectator.