Have you ever met an overprotective Jewish Mother? The kind who runs round to everyone with pans of chicken soup whenever the slightest illness shows signs, regardless of the risk to their own health. I have one, and I love her for it. She's got no kids of her own, so has adopted me and all my friends, and bakes continually.

Well tonight Matthew, I got to be a Jewish Mother.

We let the cat outdoors for the first time today. He's been a house cat since we got him three years ago. Not through choice, we just always lived in environments where he'd end up squished.

Now, we have a garden, and cats live in peace and happiness. We've had all his vaccinations done. And let him out. And managed to hold off for a total of one minute as he sauntered through the hedge at the back of the nature reserve Garden.

He's still with us and didn't run off, despite me pulling my best Jewish mother. "But he's going to get himself lost in that really large garden at the back!" I cried. To which he continued to chew grass happily and chase the next door neighbours cat around. Bully.

Am going to do this again tomorrow. Eventally I'll peel myself off the roof for a while and leave him out all day while I'm at work. But not yet dammit, he's not had his barmitzvah, and his trust fund is yet to mature. Maybe in about another ten or so years.