CATS AND DOGS AS TEACHERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1264, 21 May 1896, Page 17

CATS AND DOGS AS TEACHERS.

If you wore to obtain entrance to James A. Bailey’s big menagerie one of those bright winter days—a privilege money cannot buy—you would ho astonished to see what a number of cits and dogs make themselves at home in tho buildings which quarter so many queer beasts from all parts of the globe. The dogs are of all sorts and sizes ; huge and voracious Danes and wolf-hounds and the tiniest pets. Tho cats are large, handsome, bright - looking fellows, famous mouseri some of them, and have that air of sleek and well-fed respectability shown only by cats of bi ceding who are well treated.

“Why is it,” asked a recent visitor, “ that with so many wild animals you keep so many domestic ones? I should think you would have enough to do feeding and caring for the former." “Ah, thero is where you show your ignorance," said tho attendant. “We wouldn’t let one of these little follows go for a good deal if thero were none to replace them.” “ Alice and the elephants, eh ?” “Well, that; is one reason, hut there are others. 1 lie psyctioiogical effect of those animals is a very big consideration.” “The what?” “ The psychological effect. Ob, you needn’t laugh. 1 mean what I say. You i have no idea what a soothing effect these little domestic animals have on our cagod ones. When tho latter soo members" of their own families, so to speak, happy and contented in their quarters it does not seem so strango and horrible as it would otherwise appear to be shut up so close to mon. I liavo seen a lion or a tiger, or some other member of tho feline race, watch a domestic cat for hours, with a look of questioning and of surprise. If it saw one of the men stroke the latter and note that tho animal showed signs of pleasure, tho bigger animal seemed to grow tranquil itself under the optical spell. There’s a lot of unconscious hypnotic suggestion about our little animals, and one of the reasons why our menagerie is so successful, I believe, i 3 because wo have so many domestic animals in our midst. “ You have often heard it said that lions and tigers can never be raised in captivity, but wo are doing it all tho time. One of our secrets of success is that wo lot contented cats raise families in sight of the cages of tho larger animals. The latter note the pleasant object-lesson and are cured of the mania of eating their young aa thav do in lass successful menageries.”