HONOURED GUESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 253, 26 October 1938, Page 13

HONOURED GUESTS.

DEMAND FOR KITTENS. SHORTAGE IN AUCKLAND. EPIDEMIC ATTACKS MOTHERS. Kittens are at a premium in Auckland. V\ hen Mrs. Tabby introduces into the household half a dozen squirming masses of mischief, her owner no longer frowns and thinks in terms of buckets of water and the relative advantages of one-way car rides for the proud mother or deep sea diving with the assistance of a brick for the bashful father. No. Mrs. Inl'llv and the members of her familv are welcome guests in the home, anil their welfare is guarded with Karitane solicitude.

A keen demand for kitten* at exists in tli,. city. lh,. S.I'.C.A. announced this tnoriiinj.' tliat it had a wait ill}; list of 00 prospective owners of kittens, and the nuniber wan "rowiii" flailv. Everybody want- a kitten, and noliodv seenw to have any. Then' i<, in fact, ft lamentable decline in the cat population in the city. The present position i* the result of a serious epidemic of influenza that swept through the feline world last year. The mortality rate was heavy, ami female* were the worst *uffcrei's. It stated that not for many Years ha* there lieen *uch a serious outbreak attended by so many ileaths. I litis it hap|>en« that the survivor* have gained greatly !n honour and hav»* a secure *t-atu* in the home.