Now, our only little girl cat, Merlyn, has a propensity to play with
pretty, bright, shiny things.  Pennies are an absolute favorite for
her, when we occasionally accidentally drop one on the floor.

The other day, I woke up to find one of the rings on my hand was
missing.  I was very upset, as it is a sterling silver ring in the
shape of the symbol for my zodiacal sign of Cancer, and my mother gave
it to me in the early 1970s.  I had no idea where I could have lost
it, so there wasn't much point in trying hard to look for it. I was
resigned that it was lost.

And then the next day, DH wakes me up with a weird, shocked sound.  At
9 am. (!) (Being night/second-shift people, we are *never* up that
early!)  Through my massive sleep fog, I hear him tell me what
happened.

He saw Merlyn on the bed, with a bright, shiny object in her mouth.
Being afraid she would swallow whatever it was, he jumped up suddenly,
which spooked her, and she dropped it on the blanket.  He picked it
up.  And there it was -- my missing ring!

Merlyn got a *lot* of extra praise and scratchies for finding my lost
pretty pretty :-)

Ginger-lyn