Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1911 — ODD ANIMAL FAMILIES [ARTICLE]

ODD ANIMAL FAMILIES

SOME STR A NOE ADAPTATIONS HAVE BEEN NOTED. Friendly Relations Often Formed Be* tween Cats and Dogs—Story of French Chicks That Had a Feline Foster Mother.

The cases in which cats and dogs have formed close relations are, at course, too numerous to mention. It really seems as if there were no animal friendship so strong and lasting as that between cats and dogs when once it is formed. It is well known that mother cats when deprived of their new-born progeny will adopt puppies, rabbits, monkeys or almost any other tender young creatures that may be handy. But there recently came to light a case for which there is ho such apparent explanation. A cat and a female fox terrier, which had brought into the world their progeny at about the same time, deliberately swapped their young, the cat taking the puppies to bring up and the dog the kittens. The exchange was satisfactory, and both litters were brought in good health to the weanable stage. Nobody knows what led to such abnormal conduct. A somewhat similar case is reported from Halle, Germany. A householder there having a female cat and a female dog with families of young, felt that his house was in danger of becoming a sort of Noah's ark, and took away and drowned all the kittens. The puppies found favor in his eyes. • Deprived of her little ones, the cat began to “spell” the female dog in taking care of the puppies. As soon as the mother dog left her nest the bereaved mother cat crawled into it and nursed the puppies. Nothing loath, the puppies took all that came to them, and throve prodigiously. The cat licked them and took care of them as she would have taken care of her own.

A certain cat, the story of whose career is vouched for by a cat club, adopted a-littesp-of young rabbits and nourished them well. This cat was, for that matter, very sociable and inclusive in her likings. One year her constant companion was a chicken. The two ate habitually out of the same dish and slept every night in the same inclosure. There is an authentic story of a male and a female cat in France that, lived on terms of perfect amity with all the animals on the place—dogs, chickens and what not It so happened that a hen which had a brood of seven chickens was killed accidentally. The cat, which some two weeks before had been deprived of her kittens, appeared to observe the predicament of the seven little chickens. She crawled into their-nest and the chickens, looking for warmth, nestled into her warm fur, peeping gratefully. The chickens, fed by their owner, throve perfectly, and every day the strange sight was presented of their following the mother-cat about the premises, as if expecting her to And them food after the manner of a ben.—New York Press. .