Of course, many owners attend the shows themselves, and line their pens with some warm material, or place cushions inside; but for cats shipped alone, their comfort should be attended to, and the pen lined with a sheet of warm wrapping paper; this should be changed when it becomes soiled.

The whole floor of the building should be swept with sawdust dampened with strong disinfectant. This lays the dust and cleans the floor.

No disinfectant should be used at any other time in the hall, as it makes the air so strong that it affects the eyes and breathing of the cats, and also is most objectionable to exhibitors.

One of the largest cat shows ever held was run entirely without the use of disinfectants, except for cleansing the pans. Many visitors and exhibitors said that it was the pleasantest show they had attended, as there were no strong odours.

The "strong odour" which had been noticed at other times was due to the use of strong-smelling disinfectants, which do no good and make the cats very ill. Strict cleanliness is all that is necessary to make the air pleasant.

A pan of dry sand should be placed in each cage. The pans can be obtained at no great expense, and should be owned by every club holding shows. A suitable pan is one of bright tin, about seven by nine inches, and one and a half inches in depth. These can be bought for seven cents each. Before using, they should be numbered on the outside at each end. This can be done with a small brush and a tin of black spirit paint in a very short time. These pans should be placed in the cages of corresponding numbers.

During the show they should, if necessary, be changed several times a day, and dipped in a tub of strong solution of permanganate of potash, about a tablespoonful of the crystals to two gallons of water. It is best to have two tanks of this solution, dipping the pan first in one and then in the second. Drain off, and fill again with dry sand.

One attendant should be kept entirely to change the pans at any time necessary during the day.

At the close of the show they should be well disinfected and dried and packed away for the next year, as they will last several years, if properly taken care of.

The next item is feeding. Positively no milk should be allowed in a show. It is considered by eminent physicians to be the greatest germ-breeder in existence; so surely this should not be given a cat in a show, where no one can be sure that there are no disease-germs. If cats cannot drink fresh water for three days, they are better kept at home. Various diets have been tried at shows, but I have never seen anything so much appreciated or less likely to upset a cat in confinement than minced raw meat. Someone should be appointed on the feeding committee who thoroughly understands feeding cats, and should go around with the men attendants at feeding time, with a list of the cage numbers, and mark off each cat's number as it is fed, as sometimes cats are penned in different corners of the hall, and some cats might be overlooked or some irate exhibitor may assert that his or her cat has not been fed; then you can show your list, and if the cat's number is marked off the same as the others, the matter is settled.

A small quantity should be fed night and morning, care being taken that kittens are not given as much as full-grown cats. This meat should be given on small-sized cardboard pie-plates or wooden butter-dishes, and about an hour after feeding, these, with whatever meat is left, should be thrown away, as what has remained in the hall for two or three hours is not fit to be eaten, and fresh dishes should be used for each meal.

Another thing to be seen to is the emptying out of all stale water and giving fresh. This should be done at the same time as the feeding, and also twice a day.

The great difficulty with a cat show is to keep it well ventilated without opening doors or windows on any particular cat. A row of windows should be kept slightly open at the top, always being careful to shut those where there is too much draught. Halls are apt to become over-heated where there is a large attendance. This generally happens in the afternoon and evening. If the heating apparatus were carefully regulated during these hours, this would be avoided. This is a very difficult matter to overcome, as it is generally thought of when it is so warm as to be unpleasant to oneself. Then it requires some time to reduce the temperature. The temperature at night also is a very important point. Of course, with furnaces banked down for the night, the hall is sure to become somewhat cooler, but great precaution should be taken to prevent the men from opening all the windows to "air the place out."

The ordinary working man has an utter disregard for cats, and all he thinks about is "getting rid of the smell," which, of course, is impossible with fifty or more male cats in a building. Therefore, as I said before, a responsible person should watch the hall at night, to avoid, if possible, any "cooling off."

Never allow the sprinkling of sawdust saturated with strong disinfectant under the show benches. This is most injurious both to the cats and their owners.

The sawdust that is used is as fine as dust, and when it becomes dry with the heated atmosphere, floats about in the air, affecting the eyes, nose and lungs, thus causing considerable irritation of the mucous membrane.

Next in importance is attending to the boxes and baskets the cats have been shipped in. These should be thoroughly cleaned out and fresh hay put in before the return journey. This, I am afraid, is very seldom done, but it should never be neglected. Imagine a cat returning in a soiled box or hamper, which has probably been so for the best part of a week! This alone would be enough to make a delicate cat ill, and would certainly be most unpleasant for the strongest. There is ample time, during a three-day show, for the men employed to see to this important detail.

Last, but by no means least, is the packing and sending off of the cats. This should be properly attended to by those in authority before the hall is left. The managing of a show is by no means an easy task. It is a great responsibility, endless work and worry, very little thanks, and usually a great deal of abuse from unreasonable persons.

If fanciers only knew how much they could save show managers by the careful packing of their cats, patience, and less aggressiveness, I am sure they would not complain at every little thing which goes wrong. No large show can be run without some little thing happening, and as long as it is nothing serious, why raise objections?