The cat is different from the dog. She serves no one, knowingly or willingly. Her one accomplishment the hunting of mice, rats and other rodents is self taught. The man does not live who can claim to have trained a cat to perform a task for human benefit. For their own convenience, cats have learned various small maneuvers, like opening doors, but they do not and will not herd sheep, carry messages or run back to the ranch seeking help for jammed up cowboys. There are no police cats, no watch cats, and no sled cats.

The cat does not even come when she is called, unless it suits her.

In 1953 the American Can Company, which produces containers for commercial pet foods and was therefore interested, discovered in a survey that there were 26,700,000 domestic cats in the United States.

By domestic cats is meant cats who, however casual their membership, belong to human families. Most of them 13.2 million were found to be farm cats. Seven million were city cats, and 6.5 million lived somewhere in between.

The South had the most cats, 9.7 million, the Far West the fewest, 3.2 million. The East had the most urban cats, 2.4 million, the Midwest the most farm cats, 5.8 million; no surprises there.

Overall, 29 per cent of the nations families had one or more cats. Farm families had the most cats; nearly half of them owned three or more. The nationwide average was 2.21 cats per cat owning family. Low income families were found to be far more likely to have cats than were the high income families.

Cats are not the least bit uncertain about their ability to take care of themselves. This, however, does not discourage the people with whom they live. By close observation of cats habits and preferences, they learn to do for cat many of the things cat ordinarily would do for herself. This is known as cat care.

Your first duty is to provide your cat with a bed. Her preferences are in accord with universal standards. It should be warm and dry, of comfortable size, bug free and protected from drafts.

The only other article of furniture an indoor cat needs is a pan. There are cats that, by some stroke of fate, have learned to use the human toilet, but yours probably is not one of them. Buy a pan. Enameled metal is best and easiest to keep clean. It should be large enough for the cat to maneuver in comfortably, but the sides should be low. It should be kept in one location, and it may be filled with sand, shredded newspaper or sawdust.

A house trained mother cat will teach her kittens to use the pan, but if you should by chance acquire one that never got the word, it is easy enough to set the kitten straight. First, show it the pan. Second, after each meal traipse the kitten over to the pan and keep it there without using undue force, of course until it performs.