This Side of the Pond

My cat hasn’t starred in this column as much as our other animals because, for the most part, she and her humans co-exist through a mutual pact to respect one another’s privacy. This is an effective policy until her paws feel chilly and the only solution – in her opinion – is to sit on my feet until I get pins and needles.

Over the last couple of weeks, however, she has been teaching me a valuable lesson about problem solving. My life has been a live action version of the old riddle about getting a bag of grain, a goat and a wolf across a river without losing one of them to someone...