Andromache joined our family in October of 2001 as a one-month-old kitten. She was, earlier in the same month, discovered in the backyard of one of Carol’s colleagues, along with four other abandoned kittens. We had, by then, for some time considered adopting a second cat as a companion for Callie. We accepted Andromache (named by Darren after the wife of Hector in Homer’s Iliad, inspired by the fact that one of the other kittens in the litter was named Hector) partially on the protestation of Carol’s co-worker that she was not merely adorable, but was in fact the kitten who had the most tranquil nature of the five. Not having observed the others at length, we cannot deny this, but we have since had occasion to wonder how the other four lived in the same household for any length of time without leaving it in ruins.