Had to share this -- One of my cats, Puggsley Speeball Pickula, AKA "Speedbump," has always been a very kind and thoughtful being. About six years old, while he has never really been very happy about my ferrets since I had my first, Frieda, a couple of years ago, he treats them with a graciousness that one could only wish many human beings deployed toward their fellow human beings. This morning, though, he did something I'd never seen him do before. I feed him and my other cat Pickman raw kidney meat, once a day. Normally, I feed this to them outside, but in this terribly hot weather, I have to feed them inside, on the kitchen floor, because otherwise the local hornest and yellow-jackets come after the meat, driving the cats away and making life miserable for us all. When I feed the cats inside like that, I have to put Jessie-Weasel and Frankenweasel in the bedroom and close the door, or else they come out and double-team the cats, one of them distracting their mark while the other nips off with chunks of kidney-meat. Not only does it drive the cats to distraction, but the ferrets horde the raw meat under the bed, where it's very hard to clean out, and sometimes I only realize they've done this a few days later, when the meat begins to become rather ripe . . . So this morning I let Puggsley in and put his meat down for him on the kitchen floor, then picked up Jssie and Frank and put them in the bedroom, closing the door on their disappointed little stares. Well, when Puggsley was through eating, he walked over to the closed bedroom door and touched his nose to it, then looked up at me expectantly -- "Can you please open this, Ma?" So I did, and the ferrets came barreling out. Puggsley, smiling, watched them come out, then immediately turned around and went over to the _front_ door, asking to be let outside! He'd just wanted to tell me it was okay to let the ferrets out now, he was through eating and they shouldn't have to be locked up any longer, please let them out of jail now, Ma . . . [Posted in FML issue 0903]