Wow. What a difference 24 hours make. I'm delighted to say Murphy has been returned to us, by a good-hearted man who took him in no less than about half a mile from our home. God alone knows how he got there... he must either have been spooked or chased, and then as we know he suffers from some form of cat dementia, got disoriented. But this lovely old guy found him in his garden, took him in and rang the vets. Luckily, we'd rung them that morning to enquire whether anyone had brought him in, so they rang us straight back! He's now downstairs sleeping off his anti-histamine medicine.

Thank you ALL for your kind, kind words in the last journal. I couldn't reply as I was just so upset by the whole thing, but if there's a larger power at work somewhere, I don't doubt all your well wishes helped. So thank you.

And, on top of getting our beloved cat back, I can finally report some good news of my own, and that is that I am now officially employed as an artist in the gaming industry! I've just been offered a position by Jagex - the makers of the online MMO RPG Runescape. Not exactly as prestigious as a AAA title games company (like Bizarre Creative, who I also applied for a job with, but will be doing some freelance stuff for hopefully!) but the company is listed in the Times 100 best companies to work for list, and the guys I'll be working with are all really cool. But hey, what matters here is my foot is finally in the door and my work will be seen by millions! (Eee, how cool is that!)

This does mean I'll be non-existant round here as far as answering comments goes... I'll still check in from time to time, but last look I had over 200 messages waiting to be answered, and it's time that can be better spent working, as I'll have to totally move in about 3 weeks time, and I don't know if I'll have internet access straight away.

So yes, aside from being flat-ass, totally broke, my life is awesome right now.