PETS

The Reception Of Flowers
When flowers are sent to you, each stem should be cut with a slanting cut before you put it in water. Flowers with very thick or milky stems should be slit up about half an inch, and woody stems are best peeled for...

Dogs: Their Care And Food
All dogs need plenty of exercise; indeed it is scarcely possible to give them too much when once they are over six months of age. After twelve months they can follow a horse, but a bicycle as a rule is too fast for...

Washing Dogs
Dogs should not be washed very often, nor will this be necessary if they are well brushed every day. A stable dandy-brush is best for short-coated dogs, and a hard hair-brush, or one of those with metal bristles, w...

Feeding Puppies
Puppies at first need feeding five times a day. At four months old four meals will do. At twelve months they settle down into grown-up dogs, and the two meals are sufficient. Do not feed them later than six o'clock...

Distemper
Young dogs are almost sure to have distemper, and if a puppy about six or eight months old is depressed and quiet, and his eyes look inflamed, you should put him away by himself at once, sew him up in thick warm fl...

Tricks For Dogs
If your dog is a terrier there is no end to the tricks you can teach him. Always begin by teaching him to "trust," for it is the foundation of his training, and he will learn it before he is two months old. Do not ...

What Is Due To Dogs
Do not overdo your mastership. Remember that a dog needs much liberty and independence to develop his individuality, and an enterprising puppy learns more by observation and experience in a week than a pampered lap...

Buying Dogs
If you wish to buy a dog, the best way is to get the catalogue of some big dog show, and find the address of a well-known breeder of the kind of dog you wish to have. If you write to him and tell him exactly what y...

The Bull-terrier
The bull-terrier is very discriminating in his attachments and does not easily lose his temper, or, as a rule, fight, unless he is unduly excited. He is such a nervous dog that if he is roughly treated he is apt to...

The Fox-terrier
The fox-terrier is often a restless fidgety dog in a house; indeed, to keep him much in the house seems to affect his intelligence. He fights readily, but a strong master can alter that. In sharpness and brightness...

The Irish Terrier
The greatest fault of the Irish terrier is his fondness for barking unnecessarily; but he is particularly intelligent, active, and vigorous, and will learn any trick your ingenuity can devise for him. ...

Other Terriers
There are many other terriers--the Skye, with coat nearly sweeping the ground; the black and tan, the Welsh terrier, and others less well known; but for pluck, brains, and fidelity, it is impossible to beat bull-te...

Spaniels
Of all spaniels the Clumber is the most intelligent and beautiful; he is also, although not a very demonstrative dog, very sincere in his devotion to his master. The Cocker is a small spaniel: an active, merry li...

The Retriever
Retrievers occasionally make good companions, but for the most part they are dogs of one idea--retrieving--and have little interest in using their intelligence in any other direction. ...

Setters
The setter is a wise and affectionate animal. He is full of spirit and needs careful training, but train him well as a puppy and you will be able to take him everywhere with you, for he is a very gallant and courte...

The Collie
The reputation for uncertain temper which collies have is not well grounded. They are excitable, it is true, and apt to snap if you romp too long and wildly with them, and they do not take correction kindly; but pe...

The Sheep Dog
The old English bob-tailed sheep dog is a bouncing, rough-and-ready fellow. He is not suitable for a house dog, but he is honest and true and a good worker, and one can get extremely fond of him. ...

The Newfoundland
The Newfoundland is one of the grandest of beasts. The true Newfoundland is black all over, except for a white star on the chest, and he stands at least twenty-seven inches at the shoulder. The black-and-white spec...

The Mastiff
The mastiff is the best of all guards; it is more pure instinct with him to guard his master's property than it is with any other breed. He is honest through and through, and as a rule he is gentle and a good compa...

The Bull-dog
The bull-dog is stupid and not particularly affectionate. Although excitable he is not quarrelsome or savage, and if reasonably treated no doubt would make a quiet, faithful pet. A not too highly bred bull-dog is l...

The St Bernard
The most majestic of dogs is the St. Bernard. He is high-couraged and sagacious and very discriminating in his devotion. Once your friend, he is always your friend. Although with you he never makes a mistake, he is...

The Great Dane
The Great Dane, or boarhound, is a powerful and active dog. His appearance is suggestive almost of a wild beast, and he is particularly well fitted to act as guard. He is gentle and manageable with those he knows, ...

Hounds
Of hounds that hunt by sight we have the English Greyhound, swiftest of dogs, but neither very intelligent nor affectionate; the Scotch Deerhound, dignified and very devoted to his master, and a wonderful jumper ov...

Toy Dogs
Toy dogs are fairly intelligent, but noisy and wayward. They cannot be recommended as interesting pets, since they have little originality; but they can be taught tricks, and if treated sensibly and not pampered, n...

The Pomeranian
The Pomeranian is a sharp and rather snappy dog, not remarkable for either great intelligence or amiability; but, as with all breeds, there are individual exceptions to this rule. ...

Poodles
Poodles are intelligent and the best of all dogs for learning tricks. They are also very expensive. ...

Mongrels
Mongrels can be the best of friends. They are often more original and enterprising than their too highly-bred cousins, and they are very self-reliant; but as a rule they are not so courageous nor so steadfast as a ...

Cats
There is very little to say about cats, except that they need much petting and plenty of milk and tit-bits. They should always have a warm bed in a basket or chair. They should never be allowed to stay out-of-doors...

Wild Rabbits
Of all rabbits the brightest and most intelligent, as a pet, is the wild rabbit. If you can get two or three baby wild rabbits and feed them on milk, they will grow up very tame. We heard recently of two small wild...

Tame Rabbits
The long-haired Angora variety of rabbit is intelligent and very handsome. These need regular grooming and great care, or their long coat gets matted and frowsy. Belgian hares are big, powerful animals, rather apt ...

Rabbits' Hutches
A good hutch can be made of a grocer's box, by covering the open front partly with bars or wire netting and making a door. The hutch should stand on legs, or at any rate should be raised from the ground, and holes ...

Food And Exercise
Bran, grain, and vegetables--such as peas, parsley, carrots, turnip-tops, but not much cabbage--serve for rabbits' food. It is advisable to vary it occasionally. The leaves should not be wet, but a dish of clean wa...

Teaching Rabbits
If you find you have an intelligent rabbit who quickly learns to come to you when you call him by name, you will find, with patience, you can teach him that when you say "On trust," he must not touch the dainty you...

Guinea-pigs
Guinea-pigs need treatment and housing similar to rabbits. ...

Squirrels
In buying a squirrel make sure it is a young one, because whereas a young one is difficult enough to tame, an old one is not to be tamed at all. Unless you can give him a really large cage, with room for a branch o...

Mice
Mice should have a cage with two compartments, one of which should have a door in the woodwork but no wires. In this room should be a bed of hay. The natural food of mice is grain, but in captivity they are general...

Turtles
A turtle is rather an interesting animal to keep, although he will not do much in return. Even in summer they have a curious way of disappearing for weeks together, and in winter, of course, you see nothing of them...

Fish
Bowls of goldfish are not uncommon, but few people seem to care for fish of other kinds. And yet a little aquarium can be stocked for a small sum and is a most interesting possession. One small tank of young bream,...

Silkworms
Silkworms, if kept at all, ought to be taken seriously and used for their true purpose. That is to say, you really ought to wind their silk carefully. Few owners of silkworms in this country seem to trouble to do t...

Other Caterpillars
Silkworms are more useful but not more interesting than many other caterpillars which can be hatched from eggs. The Privet Hawk Moth, for example, is very easily bred, and a very beautiful creature it is when in fu...

Pigeons
Pigeons are not exactly pets, for they rarely do more than come to you for their food, just as chickens do, but they are beautiful creatures and no country roof is quite complete without them, and a dove-cot is a v...

Doves
Doves, which are happier when kept in pairs, require the same food as pigeons. As a rule they are kept in wicker cages. They are not very interesting. ...

Parrots
Parrots are most companionable pets, and, next to a dog, quite the most interesting and intelligent. They are always cheerful: whistling, singing, and talking. The gray parrot is the best talker, and speaks much mo...

Smaller Cage Birds
Before coming to the different kinds of birds which you can keep, a few general words about their care ought to be said. Remember that with them, as with all pets, the most important of all rules is perfect cleanli...

Baths
All birds should have a bath given them. They like best a shallow glass dish, which should be put in the cage when the tray is out. It is a good plan to put a biscuit-tin lid on the floor of the cage to prevent the...

Food
Seed-eating birds do best if they are fed on canary seed and a little summer rape, with now and then a few hemp-seeds, some Hartz mountain bread, and a bit of groundsel or water-cress that has been well washed. If ...

Tricks
Some birds are easily taught tricks. We remember a red-poll who would draw his water up from a well in the cage in a little bucket; but if you teach your bird to do this you must be careful to watch him, in case th...

Canaries
The favorite cage-bird is the canary, which, though a foreign bird, is kept in this country in greater numbers than any other bird, and is also bred here. One has to be very well posted up in the nature of the bird...

The Love-birds
The love-birds feed almost entirely on millet or canary seed, and they like a sod of grass in their cage. They are bright little birds, but are naturally very wild and need much petting if you wish to tame them. On...

The Cardinal
One of the most beautiful of cage-birds is the red-crested cardinal. He is quite hardy and eats seeds and insects impartially, thriving on canary, millet, and a little hemp-seed, with meal-worms now and then. He sh...

Wax-bills
Wax-bills eat millet-seed, canary seed, and a little soaked bread and sponge-cake. ...

Other Foreign Birds
Java sparrows are pretty creatures, although they do very little for you. Perhaps the most attractive of small foreign birds is the avadavat, a tiny, perky little soldier. These live quite comfortably together; and...

The Chaffinch
The chaffinch has to re-learn his song every spring, and for a fortnight or more you will hear him trying his voice very sweetly and softly, but as soon as he has acquired his song in perfection, it will be so stro...

The Goldfinch
We remember a goldfinch that became very tame, perching on his owner's hands and taking seed from her lips. Goldfinches should never be kept in bell-shaped cages--which make them giddy--but should have one with a s...

The Bullfinch
The bullfinch is squarely built, with a black head and pink breast. No bird can be more affectionate and intelligent. He will learn to pipe tunes if you put him in the dark and whistle a few bars of some easy melod...

The Yellow Bunting
The yellow bunting (or yellow hammer) can be a pet; and he has the sweetest little whispering song. If you have a caged bunting, his seed should be soaked in cold water for some hours before it is given to him, and...

The Blackbird
The blackbird is delicate when caged and must have plenty of nutritious food, bread and milk, boiled vegetables, ripe fruit, insects, and snails. He is a thirsty bird and needs plenty of water. Birds of all kinds...

The Robin
In the ordinary way one would not keep robins at all. They are so tame and fond of the company of human beings that they will come regularly to the door for crumbs every morning and never be far off at any time. Bu...

Garden Robins
Robins in the garden are so pretty, so cheeky, so sweetly musical, and are so friendly to man (in spite of their arrogance and selfishness among birds) that they ought to be encouraged. As the only way of encouragi...

Birds In The Garden
This brings us to the other garden birds which we have no wish to put in cages, but which it is well to be as kind to as possible. In winter, when there is a frost, to feed them is absolutely necessary; but at all ...