The Pets' Share in Festivities

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23537, 23 December 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

The Pets' Share in Festivities

QF course, if you have a dog or a cat, no doubt you'll soe that he (or she) has an extra good dinner on Christmas Day. Take care, however, to see that wlui{ you give is suitable. Turkey meat is bad for dogs, though cats can safely cat the giblets. Both of them can have a share of bread sauce, sausage, stuffing and vegetables, hut not of Christmas pudding or minepies. Nor should tbev have fruit cake or chocolate. A sugar mouse or a biscuit, however, may be allowed just for once, because it's Christinas! Remember the birds in the garden, too. They will eat most things and are not easily upset. That animals and birds should share the good things of Christmas is a very old idea. Country folk in England used to leave their cowshed doors ajar and

By MILAN TRUBUHOVICH (15)

let their dogs and cats roam on Christmas Eve, They thought that as the clock struck midnight the cattle knelt in hoiiour of the birth of Jesus, and that if the door was open other animals would creep in and worship, too. St. Francis of Assisi requested that all oxen and asses should be given extra hay and corn at Christinas. Accordingly in Silesia wheat is given to the beasts ou Christmas Eve. It used to ho said that "if wheat be kept in one's pocket during Christmas service, and then given to the fowls, tbev will grow fat and lay many eggs." In Norway a good portion of Yule a!e is given to the cattle and a sheaf of corn is set on a pole in the gable of the house or barn. This is for the birds. The same custom is observed in Denmark, Sweden and Hungary. In some parts of Spain and Ttaly grain is scattered round the house on Christmas Eve for the bird's Christmas morning's breakfast.