you all are making me laugh! Mmario, my childhood dog preferred his butter sticks in wax-paper. . . okay, kat, i'll explain "doing the doberman." have you ever seen footage of attack dogs being trained? you know, some crazy person who has actually selected this as a career has his forearm all wrapped up in impenetrable padding, and at the given command the dog leaps up and bites the guy's arm like mad and won't let go. heck of a job, eh? so my sister, who like mudjack's beloved pooch is named mandy, used to hold out her arm at a particular angle and tap on her forearm while growling sort of pirate-like so that the little kitten would hurtle herself across the room with fiendish glee and leap into the air where she would wrap her four legs around mandy's arm and gnaw assiduously with her little harmless kitten teeth! an astonishing sight, and one to amuse the houseguests, but you may well imagine that it became less charming as she put on weight (the cat, not mandy)and her fangs got sharp (the cat's, not mandy's). ten years later, madeline weighs in at around fourteen pounds. most of my friends are afraid of her, and in fact i usually call her BADeline, not madeline, because she is quite naughty (she ate my thesis photos). the doberman lurks quite close to the surface, i'm afraid. but even as i type this, she is purring on my lap, so i suppose it wasn't a total pet-rearing fiasco (i just can't make any fast moves. really i'm a prisoner in my own house). no animals were harmed in the making of this posting. sorry kat -- you asked! margaret