The Big Dog strolled into the alley today after a long absence. He was upset by all the rumors around the neighborhood that his faithful band of dogs were all bark and no bite. He had come today to see for himself. As he took his special seat on the loading dock, it was obvious that he had been missed. One at a time, the dogs welcomed him back. Even some of the cats passed by with a whispered "welcome back". The alley was buzzing on both sides. The Huge Cat entered the alley from the other end and took her place with her beloved cats. She too had heard rumors, but what she heard was that the cats were becoming too lethargic following last week's domination of the dogs. She wanted to be sure that the cats didn't take the battle lightly and fall into a dog trap. Who would partner these two legends who had so often played together? The powerful Amalekite stood with the Big Dog and the "cheerleader" (Computemom) climbed down from the air conditioner to join the cat. The fire escape was ablaze with discussion on what would happen if the two met in the battle. They weren't matched in the first round but that didn't stop the excitement of the battle. The dogs stormed into an early lead. The cats, not to be pushed aside, came charging back. 6-5 dogs lead at the end of round 1. The battle was on. Another table had to be set up for round 2 due to late arrivers. The second round saw the cats scratching and biting at every turn. They dominated the round winning 9 of the 12 matches. At the start of round 3 it was cats 14 dogs 9. Was this to be another one-sided victory like last week? The sides split the final round, each winning 6 matches. The cats had won again, this time by a score of 26 to 21. There was no "slaughter" this week. Just a hard fought nose-to-nose battle. Next week, we should have a very close battle indeed. That is unless the cats fall asleep and roll off the fence.

Welcome to newcomers: Cattin_a_round; puss_nca; boots; Opa2b; Yarborough; leglifter; bijoux

Seen on the fire escape: Deanooo - Dunkeld0 - Hides_77 - AlanMitchell - plstacy - largepill - jan10us - seaweed - fishwhittles - Saluki - Orla

Slams were bid and made by: Dittny/Errikos - 6H

Trophy for a purrrrrfect 3-0 tournament goes to: Rueful_rabbit/Poppeye; Computemom/Cathugo; Dittny/Errikos

The cats were: Scorpiokirsten/Dpman; Rueful_rabbit/Poppeye; Little Ladybug/Adele; Ksswenson/Paula_am; Debb/Dastarly; Scaterbrain/Cattin_a_round; Lorainnew/Cave_draco; Glossit/Harlequin_smiles; Smilodonkiwi/FrancyLou; Computemom/Cathugo; puss_nca/boots; Dittny/Errikos

The dogs were: Kenny/Amalekite; Deltagayl/Psspll; Lanaday/Gazettedaily; Linda/Feldenpuppy; Opa2b/Jcrayk; Cosmarch/Redbird; Nuageman/Nonny; Ccwaxman/Whitefang; Pom_two/Hbear (sub Yarborough); Jean/Arzcxy; leglifter/bijoux; Jamesgreywolf/Sandrajoy