





A kitten joins the game

[photograph, 1908]



At Stormfield, his home in Redding, Connecticut, Clemens liked to enliven the game by putting a kitten in one of the pockets. He explained to a friend in October 1908:



If I can find a photograph of my "Tammany" & her kittens, I will enclose it in this. One of them likes to be crammed into a corner-pocket of the billiard table—which he fits as snugly as does a finger in a glove & then he watches the game (& obstructs it) by the hour, & spoils many a shot by putting out his paw & changing the direction of a passing ball.