FOR THE GIRLS

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 134, 8 June 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOR THE GIRLS

SCHOOL FOR ANIMALS. HOW PUSS TEACHES HER BABIES. My Dear Girls, — I wonder if it has ever struck you that animals have to go to school the same as we do? The only difference is their mother is generally the schoolmistress, and a pretty severe one she is at times, too. This thought " came to me the other day while I was sitting on the back porch watching the family cat teaching her kittens. First of all, she washed them all over, from their noses to the tip of their fluffy tails with her rough pink tongue. They did not seem to like it any more than lots of children do, for back went their ears flat. "Perhtp* we can keep the back of our ears dry, .at least," they thought. But mother, cat was up to that dodge. She simply licked them the other way along, and back they had to go. I almost heard them click! When they were all washed to her satisfaction, school began. Pu !B lay upon her side purring encouragingly all the time, and flicked her tail from side to side in quick jerks. Each kitten tried to catch it, i n d seemed to think,this rather good fun. Their instinct for hunting, of course, makes them jump at any small quietly moving object. In time the kittens got quite clever in catching the mother cat's tail. Next, if there is one handy, comee the mouse catching class, and, of course, all of you have seen this lesson many a time. Puss lets the poor mouse run a little way, and the tiny thing being dazed and frightened, it« easy for the kittens to catch him with their wicked little paws. This seems very cruel, and often, unable to stand it any longer, I have rescued' • the poor mouse from under Mrs. Cat's very nose, and given her the shock of her life. "There goes my children's breakfast," she meows angrily, looking at me with a baleful green glare. But after all, we must remember that puss is only obeying her instinct, and trying to teach her ' . ' family how to look after themselves when she is not (here to catch their dinner. After the mouse catching lesson came what seemed like a second lesson in hygiene, for, would you believe it, the old cat insisted upon i washing them all over again! But the kittens, thinking this a bit over the odds, objected strongly, and wouldn't keep still an instant, 30 she boxed them on the ears with Tier front paws, and even kicked them in the stomach with her hind legs. Don't the kittens hit back like the small furies .they are! This is what the old mother means them to do, and then the boxing lesson begins in earnest. With ears laid back they cuff their mother back ' blow for blow, and work away with their back paws just as fiercely as she does, for this is the t ay she teaches them to fight. Next, with fluffy tails erect, and much playful spitting and meowing, ' suddenly they all scamper off the porch and tear down the garden like mad things, and up my favourite oak tree, and school finishes with a demonstration of claw sharpening by Mrs. Cat, and lam left laugh- J 1 # ing on the porch. So girls, next * xJ*£a**^ time you get the chance, don't mist ft )iL^\y^^ this nature play by puss and Jber babies. '.'■'.."