1. Now, Jessie, look at your kitty’s feet and see if you can tell us how she can catch mice and birds so easily.
2. I will try. Pussy has long and sharp claws, but they are drawn back into her foot, so I cannot see them.
3. The bottoms of her feet are covered with a thick skin, so that it does not hurt her to walk over stones and rough places.
4. When I feel of her feet, I find that the bottoms are soft, so that kitty is able to move about without making a noise.
5. When she is hunting, she creeps along so quietly that the mouse does not hear her until she is so near that she can spring upon it.
6. Then her sharp nails come out, as you see in this picture, and the little mouse is caught by his coat and cannot get away.
7. I see that the nails upon her hind feet are not so sharp as those on the front ones. She does not catch mice with her hind feet, and so only the nails of her fore feet need be very sharp.
8. When pussy runs up a tree, her sharp nails hold on to the bark, and she uses her hind claws as well as the fore ones. This is what I read in a book a little while ago about a cat’s claws, and I thought it very strange: