What an icy couple of days this has been! I slipped and slid and had a blast chasing Mikey in the snow. When we came inside, my person washed our feet to get the ice-melting residue off our paw pads. I hope your person does the same for you.

I got fan mail from a cat! I am so excited that I want to share it with you. I think you will enjoy this and it might just encourage you to send me your story too.

Dear Daisy Mae, My name is Sandro, and even though Im a cat, I always enjoy your column. You are the first K-9 to gain my respect. Who would have ever thought that dogs could be so thoughtful?! After all, just think of how you introduce yourselves to each other, sniffing here and there and in such delicate, uhm, discrete, locations. Its unseemly {to greet in such a way} to us felines. We prefer more subtle and fastidious methods.

Your readers might be interested to learn of a brand new trick I have taught my human family {Christa and John Lyon}, that just goes to show that you can teach old humans new tricks. For some time now my family has been subjecting me to oral medication twice a day. This is a dreadful ordeal and one that I would do anything to avoid. Not withstanding my best efforts to run and hide, while complaining as loudly as possible, my family insists that I receive this treatment. I twist and turn and always some of the nasty stuff gets in my hair, creating matted spots on my lovely coat. The first time this happened, they cleaned me off with a warm damp towel, and to my surprise, I really liked the grooming. I still bitterly complain and squirm so that medicine gets on my coat, and then I get the warm face bath with a wet hand towel that I really like. It is a point of pride that I never let them know this. The trick is that I love my family and they love me right back and they never forget that it is I, Sandro, who is in charge.

I just heard about a beauty contest being sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States. The HSUS has issued a Spay Day Online Pet Photo Contest challenge. Here is how it works: go to www.humanesociety@hsus.org and submit your best pet companion photo. Share your pets story with your friends and family and ask them to donate to vote for your pet. Every dollar donated in your pets name will help spay and neuter animals around the world.

More exciting news! My person and I are on the Board of Directors of the Del Ray Artisans, an art gallery on Mt. Vernon Avenue in the Del Ray section of Alexandria. We, Tina and I, are co-curators for an art show called Bond for Life that runs from May 22 through June 21. The theme highlights the bond between humans and their animal companions. If you are interested in submitting art for the show, please e-mail me at wwwDaisyMae@Alextimes.com and I will fill you in on the details.

Keep your tail high and your feet dry.