I wonder if you are a cat lover? It seems to me in the Sharpe books that there is always a cat, often with a litter of kittens, and Sharpe is often picking up cats, putting them on his lap, or giving them a stroke. I am glad that the cats seem to go unscathed in Sharpe books - as an avid cat lover myself, Sharpe becomes an even nicer character because of his gentleness with cats.
Barbara Francis
I adore cats. Dogs are just too dependant, cats look after themselves. Stalin once condemned a colleague to the firing squad and the man, who had helped Stalin's rise to power, said 'have you never heard of gratitude?' 'Gratitude?" Stalin answered, "isn't that a disease of dogs?'