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He is not impressed. But I'm worried.

Suppose some big old cat chews him up and he's hurt too bad to get home? After breakfast I take him out in the backyard for a bit, and then I shut him in my room and go over to consult Aunt Kate.

She sets me up with the usual iced tea and dish of cottage cheese.

"I had breakfast already. What do I need with cottage cheese?"

"Eat it. It's good for you."

So I eat it, and then I start telling her about Cat.

"He came home all chewed up night before last. I'm afraid some night he's not going to make it."

"Right," says Kate.

She's not very talky, but I'm sort of surprised.

I expected she'd tell me to quit worrying, Cat can take care of himself.

She starts pulling Susan's latest kittens out from under the sofa and sorting them out as if they were ribbons: one gray, two tiger, one yellow, one calico.

"So what you going to do?" she shoots at me, shoveling the kittens back to Susan.

"I?uh?I dunno. I thought maybe I ought to try to keep him in nights."

"Huh. Don't know much, do you?" she says.

"Well, so I'll tell you. Your Cat has probably fathered a few dozen kittens by now, and once a cat's been out and mated, you can't keep him in. You got to get him altered. Then he won't want to go out so much."

"Altered?"

"Fixed. Castrated is the technical word. It's a two-minute operation. Cost you three dollars. Take him to Speyer Hospital?big new building up on First Avenue."

"You mean get him fixed so he's not a real tomcat any more? The heck with that! I don't want him turned into a fat old cushion cat!"

"He won't be," she says.

"But if it makes you happier, let him get killed in a cat fight. He's tough. He'll last a year or two. Suit yourself."

"Ah, you're screwy! You and your cottage cheese!" Even as I say it I feel a little guilty.

But I feel mad and mixed up, and I fling out the door.

It's the first time I ever left Kate's mad.

Usually I leave our house mad and go to Kate.

Now I got nowhere to go.

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