The Friendly Hat

Horowhenua Chronicle, 3 July 1916, Page 3

The Friendly Hat

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ill a Junes Co/respond., ij l Most oi our animals, also ina.ii deeping things, such as our "wile wornies in the woods," common toad: natterjacks, nowta, and lizards, am stranger still, many insects have bee Lmiiied and kept as pets. Badgers, ottere, i'oxee, hares ant voles are easily dealt with; bnt tha r auy person ahouldl desire to fondle s } prickly a creature as a hedgehog, o so diaooiical a mammalian as til . bloodthirsty, flat-headed little weasel . seems very odd. Spiders, too, are un conifortiuble pets; the most you can d< is to provide your spider with a cleaj giass bottle to live in, andi teach hiu to come out in response to a musioa sound, drawn from a banjo or a fiddle do t:ike a fly from your lingers, ant go back again to its bottle. 'Ihe list of strange creatures might bo extended indefinitely, even fishes includedi; but who has ever heard of a tame pet r«L Y Not the small white, pink-eyed variety, artificially bred, which one mnv buy at any dealers, but a. common brown rat, Mus decumaims, one oi the commonest wild animals in England and certainly the most disliked;. Vet this wonder lias been witnessed recently in the village of Lelant, in West Cornwall. Hero is the strange stoiy which is rather sad and at tlie same time a little funny. 'Ibis was not a case of "wild nature won by kindness'' ; the rat si-mf>i.v thrust itself and its friendship on the woman of the cottage; and she, being chiirjilt'ss, and much alone in her kitchen and living room was not displeased at its visits; on the contrary she lixl it; in return the rat grew more and more friendly and familiar towards her, and the more familiar it grow the more she liked/ the rat. The trouble | w-is, she possessed a cat, a nice gentle animal, not often at home, but it was dreadful to think of what miglit hapjpen at any moment should pussy walk fin when her visitor was with her. r llien one day pussy did walk in when tlie rat was present, purring loudly, her tal held stiffly up, allowing that she wa.> in her usuait sweet temper. On catching sight ol the rat she appearedi to know intuitively that it was there as u. privileged guest, while the rat on it.s part .itemed to know, by intuition, that it had nothing to tear. At all events these two quickly became friends and were evidently pleased to be together, ;if> tiiey now spent most of the time in the room, and would drink inuk from the same saucer and sleep bunched up together, and were extreme-

Iv intimate. By and by the rat began to busy herself making a nest in the corner of tho kitchen under the cupboard, and it bei c-aine evident- that there would soon be an increase in tlie rat population. She now &peiit her time running about and gathering iittle straws and feathers, siring and anything of the kind she could pick up, also stealing or begging for strips of cotton or bits of wool and thread from tilie work basket. .Now it happuned that he friendi was one of these cats with huge tufts of soft hair oil both sides of her face; a cat of that type which is not uncommon, has a quaint resemblance to a -Mid-Victorian gentleman with a pair of magnificent side wlitekeis of silky softness covering both cheeks anil flowing down like a double beard. The rat suddenly discovered that this hair "was just what she wanted ito add a cushion-like lining to her nest, so that her naked pink tailings should be borne in the softest of all nests. At once she started, plucking out the hairs and the cat, takI ing iWor a new kind of game, but a I little rough, tried for a while to keep her head out of reach and to throw the rat oil. But she would not be thrown off, yJitl she persisted in flying back and jumping at the cat's face and, plucking the hairs, the cat quite lost her temper and administered a blow with ller claws unsheathed. The rat fled to her refuge to lick her wounds, and was no doubt as much astonished: at this sudden change in her friend's disposition ae the cat had been |at the rat's new way ol showing her j playfulness. The result wae when, al tin attending to her scratches, she started again on her task of gathering soft materials, she left the cut severely alone. They were no longer friends; they simply'ignored each other ,s presence in the room. The little ones, numbering about a dozen, presently came to light and were quietly removed by the woman's husbandi, who didn't mind his missis keeping a rat, but drew the line there. The rat quickly recovered from her loss and was the same affectionate little thing she had always been to her mistier; then a fresh wonder came to light, rat and cat were fast friendis once more. This happy state of affairs lasted- for a few weeks; but, as we know, the rat was married, though her lord and master never appeared on the scene (indeed, he was not wanted); and very soon it became plain to see that more little raits were coming. The rat if. an exceeding prolific creature; she can give a month's start to a rabbit and beat her at the year's end by about 40 points. Then cam? the building of the nest in the same old corner, and when it gat to the last stage, and the rat was busily running about in search of the s»ft materials lor the lining she once more made tlie discovery that thofle beaut if u> tufts of hair on her friend's face wore just what she wanted,, and once more Rhe set vigorously to work pulling the hairs out! Again, as on the former" occasion, the cat tried to keep her friend off, hitting her right and left w+ih her soft pads and spitting a little, just to show that she didn't like it. But the rat was determined to have the hairs and, tho more she was thrown off the more determined was she of get/ting them, until the breaking point was reached, and piis?s. in a sudden rag«. let fly, dealing blow after blow with lightning-like rapidity and with all her claws out. The rat shrieking with pain a.nd. terror, rushed out of the room and wan never Been again to the lasting grief of her mistress. But her memory will remain long like a fragrance in the cottage— perhaps the only cottage in all the land where kindly feelings for the rat are cherished.