;)

Dear Bob: This summer I've already been a bridesmaid at three weddings, and my cousin is getting married in October. She has asked me to be in the wedding party, as well. I know it's an honor, but I get weary of it sometimes, and I have accumulated a closet full of weird, ugly, uncomfortable, or otherwise just impractical bridesmaid dresses. I'm just not sure what to do next time I'm asked. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride

Dear Never: There are immature humans who sometimes dress up cats in silly outfits, then take our pictures and laugh at us, so I have a sense of what you go through with the bridesmaid dresses. (Thankfully our human mom has never costumed us, though she did stick a bow on my step-brother Ben's head one Christmas and had a good laugh at him. Humiliating, but he took it with grace). And I can understand you getting your hackles up about fair play. If you're asked again, I think you should just tell them that you won't play with them anymore unless you get to be the bride this time, that you want the first piece of cake, and all those boxes and ribbons to play with. And if they want you to wear something ugly or uncomfortable, you just tell them you're not going to wear anything at all! Bob