In reference to my Office Cat post, a few questions came up:

(1) Is that Gordon’s cat?

(2) Does he interact with the MSS at all?

The cat belongs to the magazine.  If Gordon ever decides to sell it, the cat would be included in the deal.  He’s been passed down from editor to editor since the magazine was founded.  Rumor has it Anthony Boucher found the cat slinking around the magazine’s garbage can one day, saw him throwing up on a particularly odious manuscript, and immediately adopted him, seeing as he was obviously a cat with great literary instincts. Yes, that means he’s very old.  See Robert Reed’s upcoming story, “Pills Forever,” to discover the secret of his longevity.

So, yes, he does interact with the manuscripts occasionally.  If you ask for the full ms. returned and you find some kind of unusual stain on some of the pages, well, then you’d know what he thought of your story.  He also, inexplicably, tries to eat cover letters sometimes.  This is why you must put your name and address on both your cover letter *and* first page of the ms.  I don’t know why other magazines make you do it, but that’s the reason for it at F&SF; perhaps they have office cats as well (though I doubt their tastes are as discerning).

I hope that clears things up.