British Pathé

Synopsis: Newsreel footage of a cat hotel in Holyport, Berkshire, England.

Reality Cats: Two little girls carry a large brown tabby cat to the hotel. The narrator explains the home, run by Mrs. Mollie Turney, is a place where people leave their pet cats when they go away for a short time, and the cats have their own holiday in style.

Mrs. Turney takes the tabby to a shed where she and another woman named Kathleen Bradley give the kitty a thorough examination and a precautionary dose of medicine. Only then is the cat allowed into the kennels portion of the “hotel.”

The tabby is taken to a kennel made of cedar wood that is movable to get the maximum amount of sun. In addition, a heat lamp is turned on inside the box in the kennel to keep the cat warm.

A large tray with a wide variety of food is prepared and taken to the cats. The narrator explains how the diets are often decided on by the owners and could consist of anything from Dundee cakes to chicken to cornflakes.

The various cats are shown eating.

Mrs. Turney brushes a prize-winning white Bonavia Chinchilla which might very well have been one her own, as she raised several prize-winning Chinchillas.

An orange and white kitten is brought from the kennel by Mrs. Turney and weighed on a scale covered in cotton wool. Unfortunately the top of the scale falls over and the kitten tumbles down, although it appears as if Mrs. Turney managed to catch the kitten in time.

The kitten is then fed some milk or formula with a dropper.

The luxury suite where the Chinchilla stays is presented, although apart from its size there isn’t anything particularly fancy about it, just some carpeting over linoleum and an elevated corner box for the cat to sit in. In fact the Chinchilla, who is said the be the cousin of Chiquita, has to be encouraged with a little push to go inside.

Final Mewsings: A hotel with heat lamps? Yes, please!

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