HEY, YOU! You live in the Barcelona area and you want a cat, right? That's right, a nice friendly playful affectionate beast to keep your feet warm at night. Well, we've got one for you. His name is Sugus (a Spanish kind of candy) and he's a very handsome big male black-and-white "tuxedo cat". He's really a good cat. He's very communicative and active, and gentle. He's good with kids. He's been neutered and has all his vaccinations, as well as the necessary accessories (carrying box, etc.)

You ask me, "So why are you trying to get rid of this paragon of a cat?" Well, my wife and I live in an apartment that's about 75 square meters and we already have five cats, all adopted off the street. We've picked up and then given away five more. If we can give this one away to a good home then it's much easier for us to take in further cats, which we of course will continue to do. Sugus belonged to a friend of a friend who managed to get herself pregnant by a guy who's allergic to cats, so for the guy to move in the cat had to move out. We're known as cat-adopters, so we get desperate cases like this very occasionally.

Anyway, if you want to take in Sugus, who is one hell of a good cat, let me know in the Comments section. Or e-mail me at crankyyanqui@yahoo.com. And if nobody wants him, we'll just keep him, though poor little Oscar is terribly jealous. He'll get over it, I guess. The important thing is they didn't have to put Sugus down.

I used to call our apartment "Els Quatre Gats" (The Four Cats; the Catalan expression also means "just us few insiders") after the famous Barcelona bar of the same name where Picasso and Casas and Rusinyol and the boys used to hang out a hundred years ago. Then we got Oscar, Cat #5, and I had to change the name to "The Cathouse". (Non-Americans: "Cathouse" is a mildly vulgar term for "bordello" or "brothel".) No changes in name are currently foreseen due to the hopefully temporary acquisition of Sugus.