“...Cats live ten times longer than mice. Scientific fact. Rhymer has survived hundreds, if not thousands, of people like me. But now our cat is out of action, and in the most vile way. Without preparing a replacement. Remembering the quiet life we led in better days, under the Rhymer, I wonder: does he know what unattended kittens do? After all, this, by the way, is his direct responsibility - to reason with his younger comrades and hammer into them with his clawed paw the science of the Treaty. The trouble is that the Rhymer is mad. Completely and irrevocably insane. Tail once predicted this. And now it has come true. Madness is a terrible thing, contagious. Take my friend, Ushasta. He died in a matter of hours - in convulsions and fever. The cat, of course, will be stronger. Look how long it’s been holding on. But this doesn’t make it any easier for me. Because it’s my turn to guard him today...”