Kittens are wide-eyed, soft and sweet. With needles in their jaws and feet.

Give a pup a home and a little love and he will give you his heart forever.

The child who ran weeping to you with a cut finger is now brought home, smiling gamely, with a broken collarbone and incredible contusions- 'it wasn't Jezebels fault, Dad.'

We expect too much at Christmas. It's got to be magical. It's got to go right. Feasting. Fun. The perfect present. All that anticipation. Take it easy. Love's the thing. The rest is tinsel.

Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers, singers of songs.

For sheer excitement you can keep movie premieres and roller-coasters . An empty white canvas waiting to be filled. That's the thing.

Love is to understand, at last, the suffering of another.