Connecticut western news., 1901-10-17
The Story of Deedie and the
 RObber Cat.


 No only child belonging to a devot- ed human couple was ever more in-
 iulged-more 'spoiled"-than was Dee lie, the only kitten of Catsie and Roi.
 When they were fed, the two parent cats habitually stood back until they were sure that there was more than Deedie could eat, and in every way she was made to understand that they considered nothing too good for her. As this state of things Is very apt to make human children willful and self ish 1t had to a certain degree this ef- feet on Deedie. As far as affection for her parents went she was a model aughter-unhappy If either were long absent, basking in the affection of her big father and uniting with him in be- slowing a matchless desotion on the little mother. But when food was giv- en them, If 1t was something that need ed to be divided into morsels, Deedle had naughty habit of gathering them into a heap so she could crouch over the bits, drawing them singly from un- der her body to devour, while Catsie and Roi sat looking on, happy in her enjoyment. This used to put me in such rages with the little beast that l once caught her up, meaning to give her a good shaking, but she disarmed my wrath by beginning to purr as soon as she felt my grasp. <
 Rio often went a little way into the woods and came back bringing some choice tidbit for Deedie-sometimes a l., <a$ ten a chameleon, kind of small lizard which in catdom seems to rank as the daintiest of morsels. One never to be forgotten day after he had gone on one of these little hunting excursions we heard firing in the woods, which was not an unusual occurrence, but when l went out later to feed my cat family I found Catsie and Deedie in apparent agitation which increased when I began to call Roi. They paid no attention to the food offered them, but stood looking anxiously up the path in the direction he always came when returning from the woods. When I paused after calling, they looked up at me moving and then up the woods path and again at me, evidently trying to say:
 Gall again. Don't stop"
 I continued calling for a long time. my uneasiness growing as l realized ] theirs. but Roi did not answer, nor did we see his large, graceful form come bounding up the path as always hereto fore. l knew instinctively what had happened. He had fallen alone in some leafy nook a victim to the same fate that had overtaken poor little Satan. But Catsie and Deedie utter ly refused to accept this conclusion, and day after day for many weeks. each time I went out to feed or pet them, they continued to say to me ip their own way:
 Gall him again. He must come bach ! to us"
 | always called. just to satisfy them. while they looked of up the path, .raning their necks and waving medi tative tails as they listened for the longed for response. They followed us with evident understanding of our | luest In the search we instituted or the chance of finding him lying wound I ad somewhere unable to return home, i but no trace of him was ever found If he was shot, as we have always be ! ueved, the hunter realized his error ! and concealed all traces of the tragedy Thus left, the fatherless daughter Of an overindulgent mother, 1t Is not with. out precedent that when the time came ! for Deedie to choose for herself she should have formed an undesirable at tachment.
 In my nursery days delighted in C tragic rhyme story called 1.-The Robber : Kitten" beginning:
 A kitten to his mother said: | 'In never more be good.
 | Til go and be a robbcr fierce
 | And live in the dreary wood.
 | Wood, wood, wood. and live in the dresry woodi" ] This poem" with its lurid pictures and the dismal echoes that were the