I was just listening to you talk about Babe (your dog) eating one of your favorite caps. I have my own story. I was given a book in 1977 called 'Olympian Cars,' one of the best car books ever. The book had (notice the tense of the verb) the most beautiful cover -a painting of an early 30's Cadillac with chauffeur pulled up in front of the Plaza Hotel in New York. In spite of having spent many hours reading my book in the 30+ years I've owned it, the cover remained in near-perfect condition.

Until one day...I left my beloved bird, Sweet Pea, unsupervised in a back room. I will never forget the moment when I went into the room and saw my little green bird having the time of her life chewing my beautiful bookcover to smithereens. If I've ever seen an expression of pure bliss it was on the face of my little bird. She looked at m e with a shred of the cover in her little beak as if to say: "Look Daddy!" Trust me, Sweet Pea was not troubled by any pangs of guilt! I remember picking her up and laughing. All I could do was tell her what my mother would tell me when I was a little boy and had destroyed something she valued: "I've had that since before you were born!"

David