CAT

Henry is a three-legged cat who has published two books and answered more than 20,000 personal letters; a feline who, while he may have used up one or two of his own nine lives, has gone on to comfort and inspire thousands of human ones. Not bad for a homeless kitten that, after the ashes of Southern California's 2003 Cedar Fires stopped smoldering, showed up on the doorstep of an unscorched home in the mountain town of Julian and wormed his way into the hearts of a displaced family staying there.

Boats sailed to the little Island from far away and herring and mackerel leaped out of the water all silver in the moonlight. The seaweed squeaked at low tide and little green pears grew on the pear tree. A black crow flew over.And a little kitten came to the Island with some people on a picnic. The kitten prowled around the Island and saw that it was all surrounded by water."What a little land," said the kitten. "This little Island is as little as Big is Big.""So are you," said the Island.

SOUTH FORK, Colo. -- After a few minutes of terrified hesitation, a lynx, a cat not seen in Colorado in more than 25 years, was reintroduced here yesterday.The 18-pound, 3-year-old female was the first of two lynx released on private property in the Weminuche Wilderness area of the San Juan Mountains, and the first of about 50 lynx to be reintroduced this year."They're back," hollered Gene Byrne, a wildlife biologist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, as a second tuft-eared cat darted across the sunlit snow.

AS THE SCHOOL year raced to an early close, there was a mad scramble by classrooms to get out on the long-planned spring field trip. The weather mostly cooperated, never so generously as in mid-May.And so I joined my first-grader and her classmates last month on a trip to Carroll County's premier attraction, the Farm Museum, south of Westminster.It may be old hat to local residents, but the living 19th-century farm (formerly the county almshouse) was exciting in the extreme to these 6-year-olds, who favored the splendor in the grass outside to the informative narrated tour of the main farmhouse.

The focus was on Just Call Me Carl's first try at a two-turn race, but Spartan Cat blurred the picture yesterday.Marathon Farms' runner came barreling from off the pace in an outside lane and won the $54,550 Herat Stakes at Laurel Park by two lengths, further scrambling Maryland's Kentucky Derby picture.Just Call Me Carl -- a winner of three straight -- finished third, beaten by a nose by runner-up Mr. Business, who was expected to provide the major competition in the 1 1/16-mile test.The field included five Triple Crown nominees and three stakes winners.

NEITHER RAIN nor wild beasts nor a scavenging cat could keep the Cub Scouts of Pack 618 from enjoying their fall family camp-out, held at Washington Monument State Park in Washington County this month.Cubmaster Dan Foley led his group of 28 Scouts in weekend activities that included a hike along the Appalachian Trail.Joining the pack for its first camp-out were Elwin Brown, Jimmy Geiser, Jared McAdoo, Evan Sturman, Kevin Caffrey, Harry Jessell and Brendan Smith.The adventures began before the Friday night sing-along, when one of the adults noticed a strange shape moving through the brush.

In his memoirs, Tennessee Williams wrote that "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" was his favorite play, the one that "comes closest to being both a work of art and a work of craft." The current production at Everyman Theatre, co-produced with Columbia's Rep Stage, does Williams' assessment proud.The second-act confrontation between Timmy Ray James' mean-spirited Big Daddy and his son Brick, played with intense self-loathing by Kyle Prue, is some of the best acting seen yet at this small gem of a theater.

We have a cat that just had surgery for cancer and we want to give her shark cartilage. No one seems to know how much she should take. Any information you can give would be greatly appreciated. She is 10 years old, a diabetic, and weighs 12 pounds.Our veterinary consultant says shark cartilage has been used more widely in dogs than in cats. Veterinarians are more likely to prescribe it for arthritis than for cancer, and we are not aware of strong scientific evidence of its effectiveness for malignancies.

I don't do lost-cat stories, but today I'll make an exception because Genoa Flotsam Ebbcat presents possible proof of that nine-lives business. This brown-and-gray tabby, pet of sailboat dwellers Mike Province and Anne Andrews, apparently survived a fast 12-mile trip atop the ski-racked roof of a Jeep Cherokee from Annapolis to Baltimore-Washington International Airport. It jumped Jeep near the BWI train station. Genoa's keepers believe she's alive, and they're looking for her.This happened Tuesday.

The last time they met, Monk's Falcon hit the bricks out of the gate and never looked back. If he had, he'd have seen Spartan Cat far in the distance, struggling to keep up.That was three weeks ago in the $50,000 Private Terms Stakes, a 1 1/8 -mile race at Laurel Park. Today, Monk's Falcon and Spartan Cat tangle again at the same distance, but at a different track for a whole lot more money and prestige.The two 3-year-olds, probably the best in Maryland, will join nine other young horses, several from out of state, in the $200,000 Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico.

An 8-month-old kitten is fighting to survive after kids threw bricks at her and then set her on fire in West Baltimore. The cat, named Gabrielle at BARCS where she was being treated Friday morning, was set on fire in the Garrison Avenue neighborhood, the shelter's executive director Jennifer Mead-Brause says. Police will be investigating, BARCS says. Mead-Brause wasn't sure if this case is related to cat burnings earlier this summer in Northwest Baltimore. The Snyder Foundation is offering $1,000 to anyone who comes forward with information leading to the conviction of the individuals responsible for this crime.

A year and a half ago, Conjus the cat stalked out of Jennifer Daniel's home and, it appeared, out of her life forever. For weeks, Daniel drove slowly through the streets near her home in Fort Meade, searching for the small gray-and-black tabby. Eventually, she decided the cat had met an untimely end and gave up. This week, she got a phone call: Conjus had been found and identified by a microchip implanted in the scruff of her neck. Daniel, 27, was astonished and delighted. Conjus appeared unfazed.

NEW YORK -- At a recent performance of the all-black Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Ramona Scott, 52, ran into a couple she'd worked for as a baby sitter almost 40 years ago. She saw another couple who had been friends of hers during the 1970s. Cat, which will be at the Broadhurst Theatre through June 15, was where everybody seemed to be. "A lot of my friends and family don't go out to plays," said Scott, a frequent theatergoer herself. "But when they hear of one that has a large black audience, they want to go and see it."

Henry is a three-legged cat who has published two books and answered more than 20,000 personal letters; a feline who, while he may have used up one or two of his own nine lives, has gone on to comfort and inspire thousands of human ones. Not bad for a homeless kitten that, after the ashes of Southern California's 2003 Cedar Fires stopped smoldering, showed up on the doorstep of an unscorched home in the mountain town of Julian and wormed his way into the hearts of a displaced family staying there.

Exhibit `Pete the Cat' on the wall In Pete the Cat, James Dean paints funny portraits of his furry friend. The exhibition, on dis play at ARTFX Gallery, 3 Church Circle, Annapolis, begins today from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 410-990-4540 or go to artfxgallery.org. FYI Art critic Glenn McNatt is on assignment. His column does not appear today.

The man behind the cat is coming to Annapolis. Artist James Dean paints funny portraits of his cat, Pete. There is one of Pete on a couch in front of Van Gogh's Starry Night. Another is of Pete in a laundry basket. Though Dean is based in Georgia, his paintings of Pete struck a nerve with art lovers in Annapolis. "I sell gobs of this guy's work every month," said ARTFX gallery owner Meg Evans. "It's crazy." As a result, an exhibit called Pete the Cat goes up at the gallery Wednesday, and Dean will be at the gallery signing books 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Aug. 4-5. The exhibition opens Wednesday and runs through Aug. 31 at the gallery, 3 Church Circle in Annapolis.

It came to her while she was passing through an airport, watching kids tentatively pass through scanners and eye security guards patting down their parents. Stormy Friday, author of several books on managing facilities, had found a vehicle to write her first children's story: It would soothe children's fears of flying by having her Siamese cat and two British shorthairs take on an airport caper. "A lot of young children are afraid to go through the metal detector," said Friday, who owns a consulting firm in Annapolis.

Sometimes I marvel at how the old truths continually prove themselves true, like the one that says you don't know what you've got until you lose it. My wife and I are feeling that way a lot these days, ever since our strange but endearing cat, Dwight, ran away. We don't know how he managed to escape. We've been having work done on our house almost steadily since the end of July, but on the day Dwight got out, no workers were scheduled to be there. Maybe Dwight sprouted opposing thumbs that allowed him to open a locked door and flee.

A summer night in paradise, supper in the back yard, and the neighbors' elderly cat, who is on his last legs, wanders over, smelling the salmon on our grill, walking as if his feet hurt. He's got the old cat blues. He wakes up in the morning and everything tastes like turpentine; he feels like going down to the railroad line and letting the 4:19 pacify his troubled mind. My wife serves him a piece of salmon and he eats slowly, savoring the fish oil. He is 15 years old, and this likely will be his last summer, and a fine one it is. In Minnesota, we look forward to these warm summer nights.

I held him gently, scratching him in the places he liked best and looking into his eyes as his signature motorboat purr faded to silence. The vet pulled her stethoscope away and said, "He's gone." I stroked his face for several minutes. As his body relaxed, his face looked younger than it had in years, reminding me of the days shortly after he adopted me. As I moved into a house I'd purchased in Charlotte, N.C., I'd seen a flash of fur zip across the lawn. The lightning-fast visits became more frequent as I settled into the home with my roommate, Pam, and our two cats.