A couple of days ago I acquired a cat. It's a long story, but suffice it to say it used to live with my eldest son and now lives with me.

The cat's name is Rosie and she's around six or seven, which makes her roughly the same age as me in human terms. She seems to know this as she follows me everywhere (even to the toilet) and I think she feels sisterly towards me in a fading hormones kind of way.

As you may know, cats have a tendency to leave humans little presents, especially of the rodent variety. I moved into a house once and one of the cats who lived next-door left me a dead vole on the front doorstep.

Yesterday evening Rosie fell asleep on my bed for several hours and when I eventually went to bed I discovered that she had left me a little present. Not just any little present, however. This present wasn't a rodent or any­thing that had ever lived, it was the other kind that animals like leaving every now and again - a patch of urine on my sheet. But it wasn't just any old patch of urine, it was a patch of urine in the shape of a heart. I kid you not, it was a perfect heart shape. If I were Scottish, I'd say it was a "perfect wee heart".

How many cats do you know who can urinate in the shape of a heart? How many cats do you know who can urinate in the shape of anything? Do let me know if your cat or a cat of your acquaintance has urinated in a recog­nisable shape and I will make a list and we can see which shape cats prefer to urinate in. In fact, if you know of any animal who has done this, let me know, because it might be interesting to compare animals and preferred shapes.

I would have told Rosie off for weeing in my bed, but as she's been with us such a short time there's plenty of time for her to shape-up. Anyway, I just didn't have the heart.

© Julie E. Lewis 2003 (UK)