The Cat and The Rat

The greatest newspaper in the United States "reports" on a cat who can write:

And the recently published "Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as Told by a Cat" (Ignatius Press, 2008) is a children's book written by Chico with the "aid" of an Italian journalist, Jeanne Perego.

The book, which has been translated into 10 languages and has sold 12,000 copies in the United States, tells of young Joseph Ratzinger's childhood love for all furry animals and of the adult cardinal's deep bond with the narrator, who lives in the Bavarian village of Pentling.
"When I'd see that the shades were up next door, I knew he was home," Chico writes. "Then I'd race over and rub up against his legs. What wonderful times we've spent together!"

The cat also witnessed the discovery of WMD in Iraq, according to The Times.

But Benny's not the only pope with a special friend:

Leo XII, in the 1820s, raised his grayish-red cat, Micetto, in the pleat of his cassock. And according to The Times of London, Paul VI, pope from 1963 to 1978, is said to have once dressed his cat in cardinal's robes.

That pretty much settles the abstinence debate for me.