Evening star., 1945-12-07
This and That
BIZ Charles E. TraceUell.

The lot OF the downtown cat is not
happy one.
She Is seldom clean and often goes
without food. Traffic dangers are as
large for her as for any one else.
She mostly misses the cleanliness and
affection which her kind md 50 salts
factory in better conditions.
The friend Of cats, who as often as
not is a man, will give thought to these
scurrying creatures as he goes about
vantages of walking. He has time to
watch the birds and see the cats. He
will seldom come across a dog.
The cat he will discover In odd places
If he keeps his eyes open. Sometimes
the animal is living under a small
metal showcase which Is set out against
wall of building beside the steps.
The builders of this case never
thought of it as cat refuge A wan
ering cat, however, did. Where one side
of the boxlike affair adjoined the wall
space about three inches wide had
been left.
Out Of this space two bright eyes
might be seen peering. The cat was
unfriendly, but who could blame her?
The roar Of traffic was enough In itself
to frighten anything on legs.
But, she was not altogether without
friendA Some one had poked q paper
cup OF milk back into her den. It was
q snug retreat which only a cat and
the friends of cats would notice. That
was a good point from the standpoint
Of cats.
Too, it kept out the winds from four
sides and the, rain from above. II a
dog ever came that way, and they did
seldom, it could do no more than get
its nose in the open space, from which
suddenly darting, paw would send it
flying.
An admirer saw her there one day
and decided that she looked very thin.
So the next morning he brought from
home small packet Of choice fish.
Surreptitiously he looked around to
see II any one was watching him. =
There was porter up the block who
seemed busy about his work. The man
with the fish unrolled his paper and
poked the offering into the den.
Kitty, kitty, kitty" he called, In
the traditional manner.
No cat responded. The man was about
denly two bright eyes and two biz
ears loomed out Of the darkness and
q mouth below began to eat.
This was most satisfactory.
The man watched the cat eat for
some time. He was one Of these fellows
who has position" rather than a
JOB. His time was more or less his
own, and this was the way he chose to
spend 1t for the nonce.
Any one who saw him would have
thought that he was looking into the
little showcase. To this day he does
not know what was in it.
For several weeks he kept up this
act OF Kindness to one OF the small
creatures Of a great and troubled world
Every day he congratulated himself
that no one had noticed his behavior
Every time before STOPPING down to
give the cat its mornings repast he
looked around to make sure that nc
one was watching.
he even brought small flask of
milk IN his breast pocket. BY the time
he got downtown the milk was nice
and warm.
The porter, he felt sure, had never
seen him feed the cat. One morning
he stopped down without lookine
around and when he Strengthened uu
the porter was looking straight at him
and grinning broadly.
The man smiled back because there
was not much else to do. But he felt
suddenly foolish.
Does you feed him, too?" asked the
| porter.
So he had been under observation ali
the time the man realized, but the
quiet courtesy OF all true friends Of
cats had saved him from embarrass-
ment.
He went humning OF down the
street, sure that it was not such Z bad
world after AL, despite It's wars and
threats OF wars, tts atomic bombs and
hard minds, its plain III will, Ignorance
and hatred.