At nearly all the shows--at all events at all the _great_ shows--Mr
Sillet, the well-known naturalist of Southampton, has the arrangement of
the pens or cages for the pussies. And very well he does his work too.
Every cage is supplied with a box for sand at the back, and in the fore
part with a beautiful soft cushion. The boxes are emptied daily, and
disinfectants are also used, so that everything is sweet and clean. The
entries at some of our national shows, such as the Crystal Palace and
Birmingham, number between three and four hundred, and every year I
trust the numbers will be increased.
You see then, reader, that no danger can accrue from sending your feline
favourite to a show, and I may tell you also that if she is anything
like good at all, she is almost sure of finding herself placed.
Cat-shows are only in their infancy, and anyone who _chances_ to have a
good cat, may nowadays take prizes. In future years, there will be no
chance work about the matter at all, and those only who study the
breeding and rearing of cats in a scientific and sensible manner will be
the winners.
When you send your entry form up to the secretary, be careful you have
placed your pussy in the right class, not only as to breed but as to
sex, whether male, female, or gelded. As to breed, you must attend to
the colour and also to the length of the coat.
There are classes for all kinds of cats, and a class for anomalies
besides.
I am often sorry, when judging at shows, to have to disqualify many a
beautiful specimen of the feline race, because it has been carelessly
entered in a wrong class. If people only will read with some degree of
attention the description of each class, given in the schedules, they
need never make this mistake.
To such clever and energetic managers of shows as Mr Wilson, of the
Crystal Palace, who seems to have adopted the motto of the Cameron clan,
"Whatever a man dares he can do," or sensible Mr Chaplin, of
Birmingham, or Mr Brown, of Edinburgh, or Mr Martin, of Glasgow, I
have positively nothing to suggest. Let anyone who wants to get up a
cat-show take a lesson out of the books of either.
To amateur managers I may say this: Be very tender and gentle with the
feline property entrusted to your care; remember not only that cats are
extremely nervous and sensitive creatures, but also that numbers of them
have a value in the eyes of their owners far above money and above
price.
Feed with Spratt's Patent Cat Food. This ought to be used at all shows;
it has the advantage of being cleanly, handy, and wholesome. A small
allowance of boiled lights may be added.
Use chloride of lime, not too much of it, as a disinfectant.
Fill the utility boxes with plain garden mould or sand, but _never put
charcoal in it_. That soils the fur, and doesn't give a white cat the
chance of looking well.
_Never put sawdust in a cat's cage_. It gets into the milk and spoils
it, and if they lick it it will make them ill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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