It looks as if Rosie the cat still has a few lives in hand. She must be about 15 years old now, a small, grumpy, pretty tortoiseshell. I lost touch with her for a few years during the divorce, but like a lot of stuff she found her way back to my place, and now she's a fixture again.

Over the last month or two she's been off her food and losing weight. John was over last week and commented on her thinness, scolding me for my slackness about getting her to the vet. So I took her on Saturday, worried that something serious was wrong - cancer or kidney failure perhaps.

What a relief! All she has is a nasty abcess under a back tooth, which they removed under a general anaesthetic on Monday. That evening Phil and I enjoyed the company of a woozy but visibly happier cat. Of course I'm £160 lighter - you could get a lot of kittens, vaccinated and 'seen to', for that........