CAT'S LIFE IN CHURCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19608, 9 April 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

CAT'S LIFE IN CHURCH.

HOME FOR THIRTEEN YEARS. ATTENDANCE AT EVERY SERVICE. A black cat, that has lived for 13 years in a Bristol church, has attended every service held during that period. "The story, as I have heard it," said Mr. Taylor, the beadle, "is that 13 years ago the cat wandered into the church and the late verger was about to drive it out when the vicar intervened. The cat has lived in the church ever since. Why, no one knows, as I have never seen any mice here.

"At night it sleeps close to a hot-water pipe near the Lady Chapel and it attends every service. Our cat, which, for some reason, has never been given a name, always seems interested in the service and usually occupies a seat in the nave in the same way as any member of the congregation. '.'Tsl

"Sometimes it is a in the front row and sometimes one right at the baclt," but in such a position that it has a splendid view of the choir and clergy. "Occasionally it will sit throughout the service in the lap of some member of the congregation, usually a woman. At other times he will walk about the church, but so quietly no one is disturbed. "A woman of the congregation sometimes brings it a piieoe of meat. Puss sits just mside the door of the church waiting her arrival. When she has given it the meat it retires to a window-sill and eats it. "Sometimes during the service, continued Mr. Taylor, l! puss gives a mew or two, but usually it is a model of reverent behaviour. One of its very rare lapses Was when it perched, itself on the. altar table, but. that was not during the service, and another when it sat among the, flowers on the lid of a coffin brought to the church for a funeral service." After 13 years the cat has become as much a partr of the stately old church as the oldest member of the congregation, most of whom are as attached to it as the verger, who supplies it with milk eviery morning, and the beadle, .v'ho looks after it during the day. 5 ? The cat seldom goes out and has never been seen in the company of any other j cat. At night it is alone in the great high-vaulted church, the noble architecture of which makes it one of the most beautiful parish churches is tha country.