The family has recently acquired a new addition. My sister (a highly compassionate creature) found herself in an animal shelter with a fresh pay cheque. An uneconomic combination at the best of times. She purchased a large feline with a rattling purr and elongated tail and named him Jed in honour of Jed Clampet from the Beverly Hillbillies. This has turned out to be an excellent name because much like the original Jed, this Jed seems to have decided that it is his responsibility to ‘hunt up food to keep his family fed’. He is a generous cat in the extreme and he would never think of catching a wee lizard and gobbling it up all by himself. Unhappily we are less grateful than we should be for this kindness. I am sick to death of rushing around the house trying to rescue yet another lizard with a bloodied stump where its tail should be. Jed watches my endeavours with evident pride and increases his efforts so that each lizard seems to be about an inch larger than the last. But this weekend he gained new heights. Where we live there is a profusion of magnificent parrots. They are some of the most beautiful creatures we have ever seen and we appreciate them like one appreciates a jewelled Fabergé. Jed appreciates them too but he admires them more like a winged plate of beluga caviar. As they ARE winged and jolly good flyers we assumed they’d be safe. But somehow, somewhere he got one. He hauled it into the house squawking and bellowing with indignation and rage. He dragged it to the feet of my father and presented it with an expression of deep self-satisfaction. His disgust when Dad leapt up in horror and thrust the door open for the poor thing to flee was unspeakable. The parrot (thankfully) unharmed shot to the top of a tall gum tree and voiced his fury with shrieks and yells. Jed did not notice this because he was angrily pawing the bright little pile of feathers the bird had left behind. He turned a look of withering scorn upon us all. “Greedy hogs” he seemed to be saying “I understand you eating a little lizard all by yourselves BUT YOU MIGHT HAVE SAVED ME A BIT OF PARROT!"