Now I want to read An Outcast of the Islands.

My profoundest sympathies to you and yours, whether two- or four-footed.

My mother and I once drove one Siamese and one domestic long-haired cat from Florida to Minnesota. We were worried that the Siamese cat would drive us crazy, but though he did put himself on automatic and emit regular raucous protests, it was the tiny, tiny, eensy mew of the other cat that had us gibbering by the end of the day. One's cat in distress is never a pleasant sound, however, regardless of the exact register.

P.