THE JOURNEY OF A CAT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1031, 27 April 1894, Page 7

THE JOURNEY OF A CAT.

Dr O'Neill, M.D., of Lincoln, writes as follows in The Lancet of 10th February : — With your permission I will mention in The Lancet a short episode in the history of a cat. It is not on medical matters pure and simple about which 1 wish to write, but it is on a homely topic, nevertheless, that may interest many of your readers. The cat, the subject of this short letter, was born and reared in one of two semi-detached houses on a hill overlooking the wellknown and historic racecourse, the Carnal me of Lincoln. This house was occupied by a military medical gentleman and his family for six or seven years, and the cat was so great a favorite that last December, when the gentleman removed to Forest JHill. London, the cat was taken to the new home by one of the family. It was put in a comfortable basket and conveyed to its destination by train. For j about a month the cat seemed to have | been contented and happy, but it was noticed that it ate largely and slept much. Towards the end of the month, however, the cat disappeared, and, after a fruitless search for it, pussy was given up as irretrievably lost. This event took place in the beginning of the severe frost and snowstorm, and before the storm was over the cat turned up at its old home in Lincoln, when, one morning, the gentleman who occupies the other half of the detached villa was aroused by the loud raewings and scratchings of the cat to gain admittance to its old, r but now empty, home. The gentleman, knew pussy we.ll, gave it a kind reception, and with him it now passes about a couple of hours daily and spends ihe rest of its time roaming at will over its beloved haunts. It is computed"' that the animal performed the journey in about eight days travelling at the rate of over 17 miles per day ; and, although the cat was travel-stained and rather thin in flesh still it was in fairly good condition when 'it- reached Lincoln. When one takes into consideration the distance between Forest Hill and Lincoln, nearly 140 miles, the intense sererity

of the weather, and the thousand obstacles which the poor creature must have encountered on. its way across London and down to Lincoln, the journey is a marvel for so small and weak an animal 'to have accomplished ; but the most wonderful thing of all is what might -be,, called the geographical knowledge possessed by the cat, which enabled it to steer a straight coursr to Lincoln, .iltliough it had been taken to Forest Hill blindfolded. This journey displays the great love the cat had for its old home and verifies the old opinion that cats are more attached to places than to people.