“We were in good time, so that our dear mistress had an opportunity of arranging our pen for us before putting us in, and also to speak a bit of her mind to the manager and promoter.
“‘The pens are too small, Mr Silk,’ she said.
“‘Very sorry indeed, madam,’ said Mr Silk.
“‘Yes, but sorrow will hardly give the poor pussies anymore room.’
“‘Then there is no sanitary box of earth placed behind each pen, and you, Mr Silk, ought to know that a well-trained cat is the most cleanly animal on earth. Why don’t you take a lesson from Mr Cruft?’
“‘I’ll have that seen to another year.’
“‘Thank you, Mr Silk, and now will you have the goodness to send me a man to sweep out that abominable sawdust from my cat’s pen?’
“‘The sawdust, madam! Why surely—’
“‘I said the sawdust. Nothing worse could be imagined. It gets in the cat’s fur. It gets in their milk, and if they have a morsel of meat, that also is rolled in it, and they are probably half poisoned.’”
(This, however, was properly arranged at Mr Cruft’s great Aquarium Cat Show of 1894.)