A round-up of a homeless mom cat and her two kittens last week has turned into a big project for the Animal Center of Newtown and friends. A colony of some 25 more cats was discovered next door to where that little kitty family was found, and now help is needed to get these Siamese-mix cats into forever homes, including my friend pictured here. But before placement can begin, the cats need to be examined by a vet and given their vaccines, and fixed. That’s an expensive job. Animal Center director Monica Roberto is hoping that cat lovers in Newtown will put a paw forward to pay for the vet care, by becoming a Big Fix sponsor for $50. “We’re going to get the cats to the vet starting this week and it will likely take several weeks — months — for us to vet all these cats,” said Monica. To find out more about these cats, or to support the fundraiser, visit theanimalcenter.org/bigfix.htm.

All of you folks with the underwater metal detectors can take a break if you are looking for the ruby bracelet that former Bee associate editor Kaaren Valenta suspected had sunk to the bottom of Lake Zoar. “It turns out my ruby bracelet is not at the bottom of Lake Zoar!” Kaaren cheerfully tells me. It turned up in a small wicker basket in which her daughter-in-law keeps her car keys. “I had used the car to take the grandchildren to the lake that day. The bracelet was broken at a link, not at the clasp, as I had speculated,” she says. But how it wound up in the key basket remains a mystery: “I wore it on my left wrist, and I am right-handed,” muses Kaaren…. Nonetheless, all’s well that ends well.

School kids might not be counting down the days until September 1, but the Brown family is. Carole Brown and husband Jim Brown, along with twin sons Canaan and Colby, Newtown High School 2010 graduates, are looking forward to September 1, when they will start a nine-month journey around the world. The family will begin their journey in England then continue on to France, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Austria, Jordan, India, China, and Australia. The Browns plan to meet and learn from young people during their trip, and will be keeping a log on a new website, www.brownsaroundtheworldtmtk.com. The website is not up yet, but will be by Wednesday, when the Browns begin their journey. Bon Voyage!

Talk about fulfilling the theater adage “The show must go on”! When The Town Players of Newtown were preparing for opening night of Murderers last Friday night, someone added a little more drama to the evening before the curtain even went up. A cast member parking a car in the upper lot of the theater accidentally hit the vehicle’s gas pedal, and drove into the theater building on Orchard Hill Road. “The police and firefighters were there, and we were hoping to start the show, but we had to wait for the building inspector to tell us it was OK,” said my unnamed source. “It was crazy, but he told us we could start and we did!”

Speaking of crazy, someone got the jump on Christmas this year and predecorated the Ram Pasture Christmas tree this past weekend. Call it vandalism or call it someone’s “joie de vivre,” but the toilet paper garland was an unusual summer sight. Either way, the tree was squeezably soft….

In case you don’t regularly read the NHS blog, congratulations are offered there to school journalists Devon Miles (First Place: News Photo), Kristin Stoller (Second Place: Editorial Writing and Bylined column), Sarah Ferris (Third Place: News Story), and Margaret Sullivan (Second Place: Feature Photo). The four were recognized by the Connecticut Daily Newspapers Association’s 3rd Annual High School Journalism Contest. We add our hearty congratulations, as well, to fellow journalists — particularly to Sarah, a former Bee intern!

Congratulations, as well, to Mead Treadwell, the son of former Newtown selectman the late Timothy Treadwell. Mead Treadwell won the Republicans’ race for Alaskan lieutenant governor, Tuesday, August 24, and will run on the November ballot paired with Governor Sean Parnell.

You’ll have to read my last week’s column to get the full background (as I’m sure you did), but Patty Graves feels like the song “the green grass grew all around, all around….” describes her recent experiences to a “T.” While thinking about family friend Jeff Stakel on his August 14 wedding day, Patty Graves was on her way to Southbury to volunteer at COPE, a parents’ weekend for the Hole In The Wall Gang Camp. During one activity, a woman she was standing next to pulled out a “Snapshot” and announced, “My husband was in the paper!” It was Knettie Archard of Golden Opportunities, whose husband Flip had been featured in the Bee column. Patty said, “That’s from The Newtown Bee,” and the woman turned around and said, “How do you know that?” While everyone else attending COPE had traveled a distance, only the Archards and Patty were local, but until then, had not met. Next, they compared notes about who they knew in Newtown, at Hole In The Wall, and Newman’s Own. “Meanwhile,” Patty says, “Jeff Stakel heads off on his honeymoon to St John, and walks into the shop of the Archards’ friend, Billy, and connects Knettie and me — and it’s in The Bee! I was amazed and surprised to connect, twice in one week!” Like someone said, it’s a small world after all.

Karen Hensel wants to thank Bursco Signs of Danbury for the fabulous “Welcome Home” banner the company made for her son, Kyle, a returning Afghanistan veteran. “They knocked a great deal off of the cost, and produced it in a timely manner, because of Kyle’s service,” Karen says. I think that Bursco Signs deserves my greatest honor: The Good Egg! Way to go, Bursco Signs!

A snowy egret decided to take a coffee break behind the new Demitasse Café on Glen Road this past Sunday. Perched out back of the shop, he preened his white feathers and showed off his stately pose for anyone stopping by. I wonder if he was there for the coffee or the gelato?

I’m here for the news, of course, so I hope that next week you will…. Read me again.