TWO CATS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 1 April 1929, Page 5

TWO CATS

AUSTRALIAN STORIES In a letter to the London "Spectator" S. F. C. Bateman, writing from the C.M.S. Hospital, Old Cairo, Egypt, repeats two cat stories from Australia. The truth of the following, he says, was vouched for by a friend: —Her brother had a favourite eat. He was a sailor, and whenever he went to sea the cat disappeared until his return. At one time he was shipwrecked. His family thought that he. must have perished, but one day the cat appeared, and the same day the sailor returned. Finally he was killed by a fall from the rigging, and they never saw the eat again. The other story might vie with some of those in the "Lost and Found" competition, if one did not know the explanation. A man living in Adelaide had a cat that he had tried to get rid of several times by taking it long distances from home and abandoning it. Having occasion to visit some friends at Port Adelaide, he took the eat with him, tied up in a sack and a heavy stone at the bottom. After leaving his friend's house he walked to the river, took the sack with the struggling cat inside, and Hung it into the water. He watched for a few minutes to make sure that the cat had not by any chance escaped, and then returned home

Next morning', when he opened the door, what was his amazement to see the cat on the doorstep. Some time later he happened io meet one of the family he had called on that afternoon and mentioned the incident. His friend then confessed that, knowing he intended to drown the cat, they had substituted one of their own and had let his go free.