My 12 days at home will be over in the morning so it's back up at 4:00AM
assuming I don't smash the alarm.  It's nice when I have time off as I can
enjoy more time on a few technical forums and Usenet.  As I return to my
normal schedule I give you this small story.

About twelve years ago, before Zak came to live with me I had my 13 year
old black and white (with pink trim) cat Topper.  While Zak talks a lot
Topper actually seemed to say something.  He had sounds for a dozen or more
different things that I could decipher.  At the time I was active in my  
ham radio hobby and would talk on a regular basis to a group of misfits
many of whom I meet in person while traveling up and down the east coast.  
I still ran my business then and had much more free time than today
(another story).

One day I was in the middle of describing something to the group when
Topper walked into the room and said meof-urp rowr.  Without lifting my
foot of the pedal that operates the transmitter I said "what?".  When he
repeated himself I said "someone is coming up the driveway? Now most of
these guys knew I lived in a basement apartment and used the back door to
the house so random people did not end up at my door.  They chuckled at my
trying to pull their legs and as I started to defend myself they all heard
my doorbell ring.  After that all they could talk about was how Topper
could talk!  A day or two later it got even stranger when I found topper in
the room standing on the transmit pedal and "speaking" loudly!  I turned
the transmitter off real fast!  To my knowledge he never got a reply from
anyone.

Andy