Page:Babyhood of Wild Beasts.djvu/63

Rh he began house-hunting. He found a loose brick at the base of the old chimney and made himself a little home by extracting the brick and crawling into the base of the chimney. Here he slept during the day and at night started out on a ramble. He explored the old house from cellar to garret, carrying mischief in his wake.

"Coonie" learned to lap milk as nimbly as a kitten. Our two fat tabby cats breakfasted on warm milk, and "Coonie" was greedy. He soon discovered that he was the "boss" of the ranch and used his power to deadly advantage. As soon as the tabby cats began breakfast, "Coonie" would leap suddenly from behind the old woodbox and, with an ear-splitting bark, rush at the cats. A flash of tails and the cats had disappeared and "Mr. Coonie" would greedily eat up their hastily abandoned milk.

He would climb up beside me as I sewed and amuse himself with spools and strings. He loved playthings. I gave him a pretty ball and he became an adept ball roller. He would cuff it vigorously for an hour or so at a time.

He would curl up on the foot of my bed; but