Tristan und Curly  Page 3

   In my own version of the opera, entitled Tristan und Curly, Tristan the Cat, an unadoptable nine-month-old gray tabby with neurological problems, arrives at Best Friends from a shelter in New Mexico, together with a 13-year-old lady spaniel-mix dog called Curly.

   Tristan does not, in fact, fall desperately in love with Curly who is rather shy and just settles in happily at the Old Friends Home over at Dogtown.
   (Being quite overweight, however, Curly might make a top-class operatic diva - as in the well-known saying: "The opera ain't over till the fat spaniel sings.")

   Although Tristan is not wounded in a duel, he is paralyzed in his back legs and is incontinent. Now, I know that operatic heroes are not usually incontinent, but this makes for a good plot twist. And, in any case, a cat like Tristan might well end up receiving a Death Potion at a regular shelter.
   Instead, Tristan drinks a Love Potion when he arrives here, and promptly feels much better and falls in love with TLC Cat Club Director Vivian Cunningham.

   So, in the second act, now entitled Tristan und Vivian, the hero and his new heroine sing a long love duet while he's getting his daily treatments.
   And in the third act, as soon as Tristan is feeling better, Vivian takes him to the Kitty Motel, where he goes to live in the Incontinental Suite together with other kitty heroes who need extra towels and stuff like that.
   Nobody goes over the Rainbow Bridge to Valhalla, and they all just end up living happily ever after.
   (Curtain)

I think the Countess will like it.

P.S. Richard Wagner didn't have any cats, but he had a dog whom he loved very much. The dog sat next to the piano when Wagner was composing, and would bark when he especially liked something. Or maybe it was when he didn't like something. Anyway, if you want to know more about Richard Wagner, you could start at the Richard Wagner Archive, and go from there.