[Gutenberg 43930] • The Cat: Its Natural History; Domestic Varieties; Management and Treatment

**PREFACE.**

Before sending forth this little book, I consider it my duty to request the attention of the patient reader to a few introductory and explanatory remarks. During some portion of the past year I contributed a series of short papers upon the cat to that most admirable monthly *The Animal World*. Through the kind and hearty manner in which the Editor brought the papers out from month to month, and also by the expressed desire of many[Pg vi] friends, I have been encouraged to reproduce the papers in the present form. Some slight revision has, of course, been found necessary; but very little addition has been made, it being my desire to produce a small and attractive volume, with the hope that it may reach to many homes where the hints it contains can perhaps be of some practical service. Nevertheless, I hope there may be found enough interesting or instructive matter to excite in the mind and heart of some a deeper interest in or regard for an animal that too often is esteemed worthy of but slight attention.

I am indebted to Mr. Harrison Weir for his kindness in supplying me with a few particulars connected with the[Pg vii] organization of the first Cat Show, held at the Crystal Palace, in 1871.

In the last chapter the reader will see that I have made several quotations, somewhat at length: I have done so with the very kind and ready permission of the writer, MR. HAROLD LEENEY, M.R.C.V.S.

P. M. RULE.

MAIDSTONE.