Notices appeared on front doors along Broughton Road yesterday, enquiring about the recent whereabouts and eating habits of a cat called Milo.
Milo lives on the parallel street of Heriot Hill Terrace, where his owners have not seen as much of him as they'd like recently.
Their note speaks of a suspicion that he has 'adopted' another house in the area. Their hunch rest on the fact that, having left them, he doesn't return home 'until many hours later apparently well fed and looked after'.
They ask, with studied politeness, whether Milo's alternative caterers would mind phoning them for a little chat.
Even if cats could blush, it is doubtful whether Milo would.
Spurtle has featured instances of 'biblionominal determinism' in the past (e.g. Issue 204), and this may be another. It seems the Heriot Hill double-supper may be taking after Milo Minderbinder in Joseph Heller's Catch-22.
Mindberbinder – a model of entrepreneurialism – famously refused to let patriotic expectations in a world war interrupt the smooth workings of self-interest.
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