a cat is of all animals the most difficult to know; it is so intimate, but so detached; so dependent on human beings for its comfort, so loftily indifferent to their wishes. it requires one who has lived with cats and seen their idiosyncrasies, their whims and their strong individuality, to write about them, and in the present author they have found a spokeswoman who knows them through and through. a sense of humour is necessary in dealing with the subject—and the humour is not lacking. loki is a real cat in more senses than one, and those who follow his life story will find themselves better able to understand their own cats than they have ever been before.

the editor.