AMERICAN STORIES OF PETS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 51, 23 December 1893, Page 552

AMERICAN STORIES OF PETS.

(ACCOMPANIED bt affidavits.) A MAN in Westchester county has a pet cat which he has taught to play ‘ Home, Sweet Home,’ by walking up and dov n the kes sof the piano. The cat also sits on the rocker of the cradle and rocks the baby of the house to sleep every night. ‘ Stump ’ is a dog living on the Jersey coast and owned by the captain of a pilot boat. Stump never likes to stay ashore and can never sleep in less than ten feet of water, where he sinks to the bottom and curls up in the seaweed and sand. All the fish eaten on the boat are caught by the dog ; but it is fair to state that they never eat fish on board that pilot-boat. A colony of black snakes lives in a garden in New Jersey. They make themselves useful by allowing the pea-vines to be trained over their bodies in place of stakes, while two of them tie themselves into knots about the gate to keep out intruders. The editor of a Long Island paper has a pet turtle which he uses as a paper weight. The turtle eats nothing but printer's ink, and every night gathers up the papers on the desk into a neat pile and then sleeps on them. The turtle is marked ‘ G. W., 1789,’ but that is believed to be a fraud, although any doubt uttered in his presence is quickly denied by vigorous screams on the part of the turtle. Parrots as pets are very common, but there is a certain green parrot in New Hampshire which is an extraordinary bird. His owner is a deacon of the church, and the bird goes with him to prayer-meeting and leads in the singing. He knows every hymn by heart, and the deacon has only to give out the number of the hymn and he starts off at once. His favourite piece is, ‘ O For Wings to Fly !’