I've been a dog man for more than half a century - Spot, Frog, Sandy, Susan. From the time I was five until beyond 50 there was always a good dog or two arond the house. My wife was a dog girl growing up.

I had Susan put down at the age of 19 years and 10 months. My heart was broken even though I knew she had a long happy life. A couple of years later Sandy the rotweiller was finished at 15 and I had to beg my son to drive her off to be destroyed. I could take her into the backyard and shoot her as a man and old Marine but I couldn't go with her to be euthanised as the driver.

Wife and I agreed - no more pets.

And then came the pregnant Mister Mittens.

Around about the 6th race today sweet little Shiloh (the runt) came upstairs to see me. I petted her head and rubbed her back. She leaped upon the bed, did a somersault or two and then pounced upon a pillow to claw it and bite it. Satisfied, she leaped off the bed and raced downstairs in a white blur to go brawl with her brother and be a cat.

The bride lets cats upon her bed. The bride and I don't share a bed together much anymore. I'm up before dawn looking for pancakes and bacon and eggs. On a day off she's in the middle of the night at 10 a.m. I wrap the covers around me like a Marine in the field who's freezing - she gets up like nobody's been there in the bed. After 37 years you have these things worked out.

Anyway, I sometimes hear my wife talking "baby talk" to the kittens and Mister Mittens. Mothers and grandmothers do that.

Some weeks ago when I had an agreement with the Missus to keep Trouble as company for his mother I let go that I wanted to keep the little girl Shiloh as well. I didn't get the bride's "green daggers" (I know those eyes) - instead I got the soft loving eyes from the girl I've known for 40 years from when she was sixteen and I was the guy staring her at ass. She was the daughter of a Marine out of Korea.

Back to the subject - we love the cats, they have captured our hearts. They love you in their own way and you can see it. They don't ask for much and don't require much. They are a pip to watch and they don't wreck the house.

Yeah, the wife and I have turned into Cat Folks.