Can I put in a happy word about our young tomkitty (soon to be de-Thomased), who doesn't, of course, replace our loved and gone Good Dog? He was off to the vet for an exam and booster yesterday. Vet called him beautiful (as if he weren't stuck-up enough, being a cat!) and he's healthy, except for a probably harmless heart murmur.

As cats do, he's beginning to develop personality. He's a very people conscious cat, eager to meet new people, wants to play lots, and has a very sooky evening program, where zonking out in someone's arms is his idea of bliss.