dogs you have made useful?" they asked.

"Oh--useful! Why, the hunting dogs and watchdogs and sheepdogs are
useful--and sleddogs of course!--and ratters, I suppose, but we don't
keep dogs for their USEFULNESS. The dog is 'the friend of man,' we
say--we love them."

That they understood. "We love our cats that way. They surely are our
friends, and helpers, too. You can see how intelligent and affectionate
they are."

It was a fact. I'd never seen such cats, except in a few rare instances.
Big, handsome silky things, friendly with everyone and devotedly
attached to their special owners.

"You must have a heartbreaking time drowning kittens," we suggested. But
they said, "Oh, no! You see we care for them as you do for your valuable
cattle. The fathers are few compared to the mothers, just a few very
fine ones in each town; they live quite happily in walled gardens and
the houses of their friends. But they only have a mating season once a
year."

"Rather hard on Thomas, isn't it?" suggested Terry.

"Oh, no--truly! You see, it is many centuries that we have been breeding
the kind of cats we wanted. They are healthy and happy and friendly, as
you see. How do you manage with your dogs? Do you keep them in pairs, or
segregate the fathers, or what?"

Then we explained that--well, that it wasn't a question of fathers
exactly; that nobody wanted a--a mother dog; that, well, that
practically all our dogs were males--there was only a very small
percentage of females allowed to live.

Then Zava, observing Terry with her grave sweet smile, quoted back at
him: "Rather hard on Thomas, isn't it? Do they enjoy it--living without
mates? Are your dogs as uniformly healthy and sweet-tempered as our
cats?"

Jeff laughed, eyeing Terry mischievously. As a matter of fact we began
to feel Jeff something of a traitor--he so often flopped over and took
their side of things; also his medical knowledge gave him a different
point of view somehow.

"I'm sorry to admit," he told them, "that the dog, with us, is the most
diseased of any animal--next to man. And as to temper--there are always
some dogs who bite people--especially children."

That was pure malice. You see, children were the--the RAISON D'ETRE in
this country. All our interlocutors sat up straight at once. They were
still gentle, still restrained, but there was a note of deep amazement
in their voices.

"Do we understand that you keep an animal--an unmated male animal--that