ZOO CAT WORKS OVERTIME

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 56 (Supplement)

ZOO CAT WORKS OVERTIME

Family Washing in Spare Moments An unusual example of maternall good nature between one cat and an-\| other has just been seen in the LionM House at the London Zoo. The catsif are no ordinary domestic tabbies, butL are two smoky-faced Siamese cats, who) live in the keepers’ room behind the' scenes at the Zoo. “Mimi,” the good-natured cat, had five bonnie kittens a few days ago. Their ancestry was evidently mixed, for some are strlpey, like a tiger, and others are black—suggesting Camden Town rather than Siam as the domicile of one of the parents. A big sugar-box with straw in it was provided for her and, protected from draughts, she diligently tended her family of five. Then “Pouf,” the other Siamese decided to have a family, and her ki?® tens were born in “Mimi’s” creche. In the first half-hour of their lives “Pouf’s” two kittens crawled over “Mimi’s” five kittens and around tho two mothers till the whole boxful became a wriggling mass of cats and kittens. “Pouf” willingly allowed “Mimi” to curl up alongside her and the new family on the same straw bed on the box. Then “Mimi,” having washed her own family, undertook an over* time job by washing “Pouf’s” newly arrived kittens —with the mother’s ' warm approval. Having washed both families, "Mimi” finished up her task by licking “Pouf’s” pretty face clean. Her day’s “good deed” nobly and thoroughly done! The latest development is that the two mothers take turns—each “shift” consisting of nursing the complete seven, while the other mother goes off duty for a spell. As a rule the Zoo cats —whether in cages or not—prefer definitely to manage their families themselves; and cooperative, share-and-share-alike housekeeping on the thorough-going lines adopted by “Mimi” and “Pouf” is «•» decided innovation.

“What father,” asks a writer, “has enough imagination in these days to tell his children fairy tales?” But think of the imagination he probably has to exercise in telling them to the children's mother!

Mr. Jones: I say, what a jolly little air cushion!”

Mrs. Fripp: “Good heavens, Mr, Jones! You’re sitting on the sponge cake!”