HOW TO FEED AND CARE FOR CATS.
Reading edition
Stanley Schell.
THE cat is instinctively a cleanly animal, and, when housed, should be provided with every means to keep herself clean. Articles necessary for a cat are:
1. A flat, galvanized pan or box, with clean sand, earth or sawdust.
2. Clean box or basket, filled with clean straw, excelsior, or tissue paper, in summer; cut-up (waste) paper from printer or binder, or a large, soft flannel blanket in winter. This basket should be kept in the sunlight.
3. Absolutely clean dishes for food.
Brush the cat daily with a soft hair-brush or with a bath-mitten.
To wash a cat (which should be done every week) prepare a dish of good, rather thick soft soap, and have ready two foot-tubs of tepid water. If you have a small bath-tub, place a towel in bottom of tub, stand cat on hind legs in tub and let her front legs rest on edge of tub. Hold her by the neck or collar with one hand, and, talking to her nicely, begin rubbing in gently but thoroughly the soft soap, beginning at the hind quarters and tail and gradually working up toward the ears. When soap is well applied, move soap-bowl aside and dip your free hand in one dish of tepid water and gently apply water to lower part of cat’s body, and so on up the body until all the tepid water in this bowl has been used; then use second dish of tepid water to rinse cat, using, as before, a little at a time.
When cat is thoroughly cleaned, wrap her in a clean turkish towel and gently pat her so as to dry her as much as possible. Remove towel and wrap cat in a warm flannel blanket and gently rub towel over her body to dry her still more; then put her into her basket and let her finish the drying for herself.
If you are afraid to wash your cat, you can clean her by rubbing her with olive or cocoanut oil, or with cream; then, after partly drying her, put her into her basket to do the rest.
Some of the articles of food good for a cat are:
Fresh milk,
Sour milk (in case of worms),
Fresh water daily,
Oatmeal porridge,
Bread, crackers, or oatmeal biscuit, soaked in milk,
Asparagus, celery, string beans, etc., occasionally,
Raw mutton, except on day you give her liver (which should be given at least once in ten days), or on day you give her fish (which should be once a week).
Add boiled rice to the milk if cat has diarrhœa.
Whenever a cat is sick, if possible learn and remove cause; if not possible, give her one of the following:
Castor oil,
Grass,
Catnip,
Flowers of sulphur, or baking soda in milk.