The _Blue_ or _Slate-coloured Cat_. These are subdivided into two: 1, the pure Blue; and 2, the Blue-and-white. _Tabbies_ are easily subdivided into four classes, viz:--1, the Red Tabby; 2, the Brown Tabby; 3, the Blue or Silver Tabby; and 4, the Spotted Tabby. There are other odd cats, such as the Manx or tailless cat, the hybrid, the six-clawed cat, and some curiously-coloured animals, which I shall mention in another place, for these have no right to have classes of their own, any more than black-and-tan Newfoundlands, or kittens with eight legs. I shall take these in their order of rotation. 1. _The Tortoiseshell Cat_.--This might also be called the black-and-tan cat. If you want to get a good idea of the colour this cat is, or ought to be, take a keek through a lady's tortoiseshell back-hair comb. That is about it; but you never see such perfection in pussy's coat. For many a long year it was almost universally believed that there never was any such thing as a tortoiseshell male or Tom cat, or ever could be; and many an anxious search has many an old maid had over her newly-born litter of kits, to see if she would be fortunate enough to find the much-to-be-desired anomaly. For, bear in mind, a belief used to be pretty current that 300 pounds--or was it 500 pounds?--would be paid over some counter, by some fool or fools unknown, to anyone who should be able to put the possibility of the existence of a tortoiseshell Tom beyond dispute--by producing one. I saw an advertisement the other day in _The Live Stock Journal_, offering for sale a tortoiseshell Tom, at the low price of 100 pounds! I hope, if only for poor Tom's sake, that somebody with more money than brains bought it--for the cat anyone paid 100 pounds for would, I should think, be certain of good milk and generous treatment.