Untitled

Care & Managernent by P. M. SODERIIEIIGVice - Chairman of the Governingff ":l :i,"\,fii,"'"ul ?i"o.n."tDiffi,ealt QaeerosF breeding pedigree cats wereffas easy as falling off a log,- kittens would be nine a penny.Fortunately breeding is not aseasy as all that ; in fact, most ofus find it more than a little difficult.Speaking quite personally, Ihave found it most difficult toobtain kittens during the pasttwo seasons, and I cannot blamethe unnatural conditions underwhich pedigree cats are supposedto be kept, because mine havealmost unlimited freedom in opencountry.I have certainly reached oneconclusion. It is that far moreoften than not it is the queen whois at fault. Whether or not I ammyself responsible for thesefailures I cannot say, but I havestarted off this year with a minorrevolution.One queen I purchased as akitten because I was anxious toobtain a female whose motherhad been a good breeder. Thisparticular mother had producedforty-two kittens in eight littersand had reared thirty-nine ofthem to eight lveeks. The studwas well known as a successfulsire. Here, so it seemed, washopeful material. It was, however,a false hope, for it was onlyafter four visits to the stud that21the queen,' now eighteen monthsold, was found to be in kitten.Eventually she produced a litterof four, but all were dead.It was then that I decided tokeep my own stud. With otherpeople's cats he was eminentlysuccessful, but there was no resultwhen he was mated to this par_ticular queen. As a last resortthey were left to live together,but even this arrangement failed.This year I decided that assoon as the queen called sheshould be allowed to run wild.As a result she is obviously inkitten. Why things shouid workout this way your ,guess is asgood as mine.Novice Fanciers often write toask if I will take their queen tomy stud, and in the course of theletter some of them say that shehas already been to two or threeother studs. I always refuse andthat for two reasons. In the firstplace, I only keep a stud for myown queens and those of a fewfriends, but also because I amconvinced that they are wastingtheir money and my time. NowI am advising all who put thisproblem to me that I should letthe queen have a mongrel litter.In fact, I am almost prepared tosay that it would be a good planto allow queens of the notoriously