Book excerpt: Cat lovers cuddle, caress, and cater to their adorable but aloof feline friends. The cat, in fact, has become one of the country's most beloved pets, with some 90 million kitties claimed by doting owners. Now, Leigh Anne Jasheway's Bedtime Stories for Cats gives cat lovers everywhere new and inventive stories to lull their furballs to sleep. In "Rumpled Katzkin," for example, silky Phoebe the Cat impersonates Barbra Streisand, but longs not for riches but for more time with her nerdy owner. In "Kitty and the Beast," a not-so-beautiful cat adopts a young girl who subsequently learns that beauty is only fur deep. And in "Puss and the Missing Boots," feline detective Pussywillow Claudius Rex the Third ("The name's Puss") solves the mystery when Dollface Molloy's blue suede, over-the-knee boots are reportedly stolen by a cat burglar. Bedtime Stories for Cats is a humorous feline-oriented interpretation of some of America's favorite classics, from "The Three Alley Cats Gruff" to "Catpunzel." Jasheway has written a purrfectly delightful book guaranteed to make readers meow.