1 July 2006

Dear Dennis,
I hope you and your Carol are well and even more rested after your most recent holiday - where did you go this time? I trust the factory are well and all the little Ritas are performing to summarily directed SLA's and targets. Our adoptive cat gave birth to four kittens on Tuesday - on young Charles bed of all places and at 2:30 in the morning too! The cat seemed to be handling things alright by itself so I went back to bed and told Charlie to sleep on the floor but by that time the brunette had surfaced and the whole affair turned into a full-scale operation with towels, cups of coffee, oo's, ah's and a blow-by-blow account being called out around the house. It was very hard to maintain a sleep posture throughout but I think I pulled it off ok. I've been rewarded for my efforts by being tasked with cleaning out the old litter tray I threw on the compost heap last year after our original cats had finished with it. The cat (ah bless) refused point-blank to sleep with her new kittens in the fabulous timber miniature shed I'd fashioned and instead is firmly ensconced in a plastic clothes basket next to our bed where the brunette can keep a close eye and break my sleep pattern with regular 'leaning-over-the-bed' exercises to check on kittens safety. The first time she sprawled over the bed in her double layer winceyette I thought it was my cue, I was though, immediately and firmly rebuffed and made to feel like rather a cad actually. "How could [I] possibly think of things like that at a time like this".
D