Smiley Anders for Oct. 19, 2009

• By SMILEY ANDERS
• Advocate columnist
• Published: Oct 19, 2009

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Della Neely-Stout says, “When I met my groom four years ago he talked often about how he loved cats. He also talked about his sailboat.

“After about a year of knowing him I decided to surprise him with a kitten since he loved cats so much.

“He seemed pleased, I thought. Still he talked about cats all the time — how he wanted to get one.

“So I got him a full-grown cat. He didn’t turn him down, but the cat-talk continued until one day I brought him yet another cat.

“Then he said, ‘Thank you for the cat, but that’s enough cats for me!’

“I said, ‘Well, you are always talking about how you want a cat, so I got these for you!’

“ ‘Catamaran!’ he said. ‘A sailing cat!’

“When we married and merged households and cats we had to get a king-sized bed to have room for us and our nine cats. It cost him at least a healthy down payment on a catamaran, but at least he has a place to lay his head to dream about cats — of all kinds.”

Bald facts

Bert Broussard says when he and his wife got married and moved from Baton Rouge to Anacortes, Wash., her Southern accent caused some confusion.

“One of her first encounters with the locals was when she went to the market and asked the butcher where the ‘bald hams’ were kept.

“She has since learned that they are actually called ‘boiled’ hams.

“Another time she was shopping for tongs and the clerk thought she said ‘thongs.’ You can imagine how that went.