The Topeka state journal., 1899-11-23
ABOUT CATS.

famed of catteries in England, which
year by year are becoming more num-
erous, as puss advances in popular IA
vor and fashion. is Miss Hester COch-
rams excellent collection now housed at
J the cottage, Witchchampton. VIM
borne.
The cats mostly made their names
and their owner's-while she and they
were living near Salisbury, at Alder
holt, and have only lately been trans
ferred to the silvan seclusions OF
WitchamptOn, one of the prettiest viii
lagos in pretty DOrSetShire, says the
Ladies' Pictorial.
Sivers, shaded silvers and silver tab
bies, but more especially the former
are perhaps Miss COchran's special
speciality, and she has bred and owns
some of the best unmarked silVers OF
the day. A pretter creature in this line
than Mistress Dimity, for example, it
would be hard to imagine, nor one
more free from every shade of contain
mating color, and more evenly and
purely akin to the precious metal she
represents. Shown but twice, she took
first, second and two specials, but has
TenOunced an exhibition career.
a cat of character, her children in
herit some quaint traits, among them
strong family attachment Her kit
ten play unWeariedly together, but
treat any advances from SciOnS of other
races with cold contempt; no 'Dimity"
kitten forms any attachment outside
it's own family, and consequently it is
desirable to deal with them in couples!
! The present infants of the ilk are a
promising little pair, the female an eS-
pecially lovely, pale and pure silver,
without the slightest marking of any
kind, beautifully shaped, with an eX-
ceptionally fine head and limbs, an i'm
menSe brush, and the promise of much
coat; altogether 6, treasure such as all
silver breeders, and silvers are Ger
tainly the most difficult of all Persians
to produce in anything like perfection,
must long, at the mereSt sight, to pos
ses. Another merit, shared by the 9TH
er members of the family, is her ex-
tremeIy sweet temper; even the gener-
ally abhOrred process of the daily
cOmbing, provocative in most cats OF
much red rapine-toOth and claw-af-
ter natures best traditions, is under
gone in amiable resignation.
That the daily toilet alone, to say
nothing of all the other cares of feed
ing and rearing-the diet table at
| WitchOmptOn is on the most liberal
scale-tal1e time is easily to be imagin-
ed. Miss Cochran tends her pets her
self maintaining that disaster is sure
to attend her absence from them, in
which opinion most cat-OWnerS will
! heartily concur. Partly for their at
! fractions per Sc and partly for the ben
eft of the cattery, a typical little herd
| of goats is kept and. like the cats, these
are of the very best of their kind.
! which, in one instance at least, that of
/ the Nubian goat, MarmiOn. is one to
| strike the most ignorant behOlder with
! admiration.
The sultanship among the silvers, a
/ position formerly occupied by Sweet
! BOY, IS now given to F'ttZ EuStace, a
/ fine young cat, even paler in color than
! Dimity, with a wide head, big eyes of
I the most correct emerald. He was sold
/ from the cattery at a kitten to Mrs.
! Marriott, but on seeing and cOveting
/ him in the spring Miss Cochran per
| suaded his then owner to allow her to
! TepurchaSe him.
| Another fine cat is Blue Robin.
! light blue with silver ear tufts and
! silver chin. He is the pOssessOr of a
! tremendously wide head. unusually
short legs andO a heavy coat, which
| advantages secured him a challenge cup
| and two specials on the solitary Occa-
! sion of his making a public appearance
at w WeSt minister. Another blue is Mo
| kama, a kitten. The latest of Miss
! Cochran's hobbies is for Siamese cats,
! and she has gone about it most thor
! Oughiy and SyStematicallv reading all
! she could on the subject-its Iitera t1re
/ is not eXtensive-and collecting infor-
4 nation in every quarter for the better
! understanding of this most interesting
! breed.
Her conclusions, summed up In var
J iOuS most able and interesting articles
! for though but a lassie YETI Miss
| Cochran is a very clever Htterateur-
| are somewhat to the effect that the
/ Siamese themselves are slightly OBJ
! scure as to the respective merits of
! "kinked" and nOn-kinked tails of "rOv-
| al and ordinary points, and cOnse-
! quently and inevitably, until some one
! comes forward with a tabulated scheme
| ences Of opinion among judges are tenn
I pOrarily unavoidable.
Be this as it may, no admirer of the
I breed could fail to include KraS among
| the best of his race. His is a most in
! dependent, quaint personality. We'll
J worth preserving, even though doing so
/ in his interest owners case, has entail
ed nursing him through a severe ILL
; ness, during which he occupied her own
J room, and exaCted incessant attention
I All the more gratifying was her Ella
/ ton, when he rose from his sick bed
( somewhere about 4 o'clock of a certain
/ morning, mounted a tall chest of draw
erS, and Sangi The song of the Sfa-
! mese cat is one which no pen less than
| that of a Carlyle, dipped in luridly pow
! erful ink, could describe, and Krags
! sings it with feeling and expression
| His markings-the dark seaI-cOlored
rei1efs to a clear faWn coat, short and
/ VelVety-might be better but in form
| he is excellent, very large, and with a
I fine head and eyes of true coerulean
hue. His wife, SuSa Il, is a charming
little person, with pretty marking and
! the most intense of sky -cOlored orbs.
| who came from Mrs. Sutherland of
! SiameSe fame, and is descended from
| Miss restier-Walker's celebrated cats
! as is Minthamee. her half sister. a trav-
| eled princess, who came from France
at months old, and has since spent
/ three weeks successfully in London,
| Dumfriesshire and Glasgow with her
/ mistress.
And now we come to the gem of the
! cattery. as far as rarity goes, for a
| pure white Manx cat, named Pan alb
solutely genuine in breed. as his shape.
| with the hare-liSe hind legs. shows. is
a curiosity, not to say a thing of love
| 1neSS, not to be picked up every dav
Miss Cochran possessed two of these
/ reau exquisite kittens, but under an
| old engagement. reluctantly parted
| with one, now the property of Lady
Alexander. To the remaining one she is
fondly attached and describes him as a
most intelligent beastie. quite above
Z the average q COnn9niOn and
| lOvably in all his ways
] From cats TO horsas is q shaar. DE-