Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

The Central City [Col] Register relates this story: W. W. Ramage, Corbett Bacon, his brother Judge Bacon, and Dr. Paul reside in the mining and voting precinct established long years ago by the Georgian explorer, Green Russell and in honor of that indomitable pioneer christened ‘Russell Gulch.’ Rumage was the owner of a very remarkable cat. Last June he concluded to remove away East, and carrying out the decision, left the house vacant. The cat loafed around until it seemed pretty well settled that the master of the ranch wasn’t coming back for some time, when she picked up her things and went down to Corbett Bacon’s for a lunch. Finding it a decent sort of place, she quietly and unobtrusively located. In process of time four little kittens were born to her. In the following October, when the autumn leaves began to fall, and the premonitory symptoms of winter made their unwelcome appearance. Ramage returned. But there was no cat to greet his returning footsteps, nothing but the bleak desolation of a deserted homestead. One day he happened in at the Bacon mansion. While there he discovered his cat and the four kittens. Ignoring the mother, he carefully selected two of the four youngsters and said, “I must have these by and by, when their eyes open and they get large enough to crawl around and play.”
Nothing more was said or thought about the matter. A month later Ramage found, on going to his coal-house, the two kittens he had selected, carefully stowed away in one corner. There was neither label nor sign to indicate where they came from or who brought them. Bacon lived a mile and a half distant. He took the isolated darlings into his house and cared for them. Some days later he inquired of Corbett whether he had brought up the kittens, and received an answer in the negative. Then it came to pass that this remarkable cat [the mother] had made a generous distribution of her progeny among her special friends. Two she had delivered to Ramage, as desired, one to Dr. Paul who resided near, and the fourth to Judge Bacon, Corbett’s brother. Then she returned to the house of her second love, quite contented and happy in the consciousness of having done a good thing.