"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "That's not a rat."

"No, it's your fur neck piece," her husband said, with a laugh.

"Oh, I wore it to the picnic, for I thought it would be cool coming
home," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as she took the piece of fur. "And I laid it
on the hall table. I forgot about Snoop. He must have seen it, thought
it was a strange animal, and carried it away with him. Oh, Snoop!" and
she shook her finger at the cat which, now that it had nothing to play
with, came out from beneath the table.

"It does look like an animal," said Nan.

And indeed the fur piece did. For it was fashioned with an imitation of
an animal's head, with yellow glass eyes. The fur piece was quite long
and four little legs were fastened to it. So that it is no wonder a cat,
or even a boy or a girl, at first look, would take it for something
real.

"Well, Snoop had a good time with it, while it lasted," said Mr.
Bobbsey, with a laugh.

"And my fur wouldn't have lasted much longer with him, if he'd started
to claw and bite it," remarked Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'm glad you called me in,
Dinah."

"Yessum, Ah thought maybe yo'd better see what the cat had, 'cause Ah
couldn't make out what 'twas," the cook answered.