Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1885 — Hatched by a Cat. [ARTICLE]

Hatched by a Cat.

A remarkable cat jives at No, 98 Fifteenth Street, South Brooklyn. From an early age she has displayed a great fondness for hatehin g out chiokens. She sits on eggs like an old hen, until tha feathered young break the shell, and then she cares for them as affectionately as if they were orthodox kittens. Four families of chickens have been hatched by this cat, and she is now busily engaged on the fifth, with a very fair prospect of success. The animal is the property of Mrs. Leonard, an intelligent Irish vom m, wh resides with her husband in a cottage at the above address. A Herald reporter called at the house yesterday afternoon to see the wonder. In one corner of the kitchen, partitioned off from the rest of the room, was a large bird cage, around which a dozen chiokens were strutting and picking up a meal. Inside the cage, on a bed of straw, was a cat of unprepossessing appearance, but of stalwart proportions, covering four eggs. ‘The latter were disclosed to view as the reporter approached the cage, and the animal left her nest to play with a chicken. Then she returned to her task, extending her body at full length over the eggs and completely hiding them. The chickens she had already bro’t into the w orld seemed to possess as much filial affection as is generally shown by little chicks for their natural motheVs, and they pirouetted about the cat in the most fa* miliar way, climbing on he| back, enjoying her warm coat of iter, until a movement of her body tumbled them off. After she had become weary of sitting, the cat made a tour of her young, and carried them to different parts of the inclosure. Her method of transportation was by the neck, and the chickens did uot seem to mind this kind of transit any more than if they were kittens. She has been very kind to them, and has never made a meal of her offspring. It is related that when her first chicks appeared she carried one of them by tk< neck up the cellar stairs. The flesh of the young biped being very tender, and the journey sornewhat long, blood soon flowed. Instead of devouring the cliick after she had tasted its blood, she applied her tongue daily to the neck until the wound healed. The cat came to Mrs. Leonard’s house about a year ago, unheralded and unknown, and the next day was found on a nest of eggs, deserted by a hen who should have been sitting. She was driven off repeatedly, for fear she would break the eggs; but, persisting in her purpose, brought forth a brood of chicxens that astonished the household. About a score of chickens have been bro’t into the world through her agency. —N. Y. Herald.