RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume C, Issue 29565, 14 July 1961, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

ABDICATION

The Pedigree Persian Cat Fanciers, New Zealand, held their first show in Wellington recently. There was a coronation ceremony in which the Persian Cat of the Year and the Persian Kitten of the Year were crowned with jewelled crowns and wore velvet erminetrimmed capes. It seemed to this column’s family, on being acquainted with this item of news, an excellent idea for those domestic pets which had stoically survived its best efforts to kill by kindness. So a coronation was organised. The family wardrobes failed to yield anything remotely resembling a jewelled crown, bdil

i there was a fairly presentable swansdowni trimmed bedjacket. Competition could not be described as keen. In i the Tabby Cat of the t Year section, there was one entrant It wore the bed jacket and a small i paper party hat tied 1 under the chin with elastic. The bed jacket was worn with a sort of regal > resignation which was i utterly at variance with i the slightly inebriated i look produced by the > paper hat and its habit I of slipping half off the i head. But the Cat of the » Year was duly admired, after a thorough pre- > paration consisting of a I brushing with an old hearth broom. i On the other side of the i lawn sat the Fox Terrier'

of the Year, wearing an old Air Force forage hat and an air of abject misery. In truth, the hat sat no more unbecomingly on the dog than on many its owner remembers, but an old football jersey tied on by the arms is a poor substitute for a velvet ermine-trimmed cape. However the ceremonial went on according to schedule until the arrival of a third party disrupted it. The Tabby Cat of the Year arched its splendid back, the Fox Terrier of the Year dropped its hat and gave chase, to what was, apparently, nothing more upsetting than a late but strong claimant to the title of Mangiest Cat of the Year.