_Sixthly. Breeding for colour_. No matter what colour your parent cats
are, you will occasionally find waifs and strays in a litter that you
will wonder to find of a different colour. But do not be discouraged;
stick only to the true colours, and you will find in time that such
anomalies will become few and far between. Be careful to avoid the
possibility of any litter of kittens having more than one father.
_Seventhly_. In young cats, which you are breeding to take prizes with,
begin to look out for symptoms of the queen's getting gay, any time
after six months, and on the first signs lock her up for a week, or
until she becomes herself again. Do not think of breeding from a cat
you mean for the show-bench until she is at least eighteen months old,
else you will spoil her for size.
Some people fancy that to manage cats properly, and guide their breeding
to the Tom you desire them to, is very difficult. I have not found it
so. There is a little trouble, certainly, but you are amply rewarded,
when you find on the birth of the kittens that you have been successful.
The only thing you've got to do, is to watch the queen well, and lock
her up for a night or two with her own lord in an outhouse. Then
afterwards keep her prisoner by herself for ten days. The danger is
quite past then.
_Eighthly_. About a week before any important show, be more than
usually careful with the grooming, etc, of your cats, and feed them up a
bit; give them an extra allowance of milk and cream, and boiled rice and
sugar, and occasionally mutton and mutton-broth, but take great care not
to induce diarrhoea.
_Ninthly_. Send them to the show in a basket lined with flannel and a
cushion, and pretty collar or ribbon to match the colour of the coat.
Let the colour of the cushion be also effective, and in keeping with
pussy's jacket.
As to cat-shows themselves, I have nothing but good to say. All
prosperity to their promoters and patrons! They are in general, indeed
almost invariably, well managed, and the cats are carefully caged,
properly tended and fed, and no lady need apprehend the slightest danger
to her feline favourite, in being sent to any of our great shows. It is
seldom, if ever, that a cat is lost, the baskets containing the pussies
never being opened, until inside the building, and then only with the
greatest care. Indeed, one needs to be pretty cautious in handling a
strange cat. Your well-bred beauties, in particular, make it a rule to
stand no nonsense.
The cats are fed morning and night, and regularly supplied with the best
and sweetest milk which the town can afford. Indeed, altogether, the
poor things appear quite as happy as they are at their own firesides.
If it is a four-day show, they soon come to know and welcome with gloved
hand, the girl attendants every time they pass. There is no
head-splitting noise and din as there is in a dog-show. Peace and quiet
and serenity reign everywhere in a cat-show.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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