"You in the House?"

She was a short woman in a faded print dress who had buttonholed me on the steps of the State House. She had a florid complexion and staccato manner of speaking. Waving a sheet of yellow paper in my face, she introduced herself as Mary Keith Norton.

"No relation to the Senator. I'm here petitioning for a bill, and I need your signature on it. It'll be worth your while to read it."

She grasped my lapel firmly in one hand while pushing her petition at me with the other. "I know you're a busy man and all that, but this is something that our state really needs. This here favoritism has got to stop."

There seemed to be no escape. "What do you want?," I asked. I took the paper from her hand, and she released my lapel. "An Appropriation for the Establishment of a Pound for Homeless Cats," read the title.

"Cats?," I asked.

"Yes, cats. There are hundreds, thousands almost, of homeless cats roaming around the city of Boston alone."

I protested, "Don't we already have something like that pound?"

She looked at me with evident disgust. "Only for dogs. Why should cats be discriminated against? Is there any good reason why there should be favoritism for dogs and not for cats?"

I allowed that I could see no particular reason.

"So even you see that we need a state-owned pound for cats. Now, the cost isn't really as much as you think. I mean it'll only be a couple of thousand a year. It's worth at least that much to protect our people, don't you think?"

"Yes, sure."

"Then sign it. Right here at the bottom where the X is. Sign it and speak for it on the floor, won't you?"

"But I can't sign that."

"Sure you can. Why not?"