Homecoming ‘Purrfect’ End to Toby the Cat’s Travels

--The owner of an adventurous cat that came back will keep him after the feline traveled at least 35 miles to return home. It took Toby the tomcat five weeks to return to Pamela Banks in Dickson, Tenn., after she took him to her cousins in Joelton. “We’re going to keep him now,” Banks said. “How can you get rid of anything that would go through what he went through to get back home?” Toby’s odyssey began when Pamela Masters married Randy Banks and they brought her cat to their new home. But Banks said Toby didn’t take to her husband’s 18-month-old daughter from a previous marriage. She then gave Toby to her cousins, but the cat had his own ideas about where he wanted to live. Toby appeared exhausted and the tip of his tail was broken during his journey, but otherwise the cat reportedly was in good health.

--First Lady Nancy Reagan will celebrate her birthday today at an intimate, table-for-two dinner with President Reagan. “They’ll just have a quiet dinner together in the White House,” said Elaine Crispen, Mrs. Reagan’s press secretary. Crispen said the President did not intend to give Mrs. Reagan a special gift, but would have birthday cards ready for her. The Reagans often forgo gift-giving at anniversaries and birthdays, choosing instead to purchase farm implements for their 688-acre ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif. Although Mrs. Reagan has said in the past that she “hasn’t decided yet” how old she really is, records at her college, Smith in Northampton, Mass., have shown that she was born in 1921.

--Prince Andrew went down to the farm to join his fiancee, Sarah Ferguson, at a party to celebrate their July 23 wedding. The informal, two-hour gathering was held at the Fergusons’ family home at Dummer Down Farm in Hampshire in southern England. Friends, farm workers and local business people were among the 100 guests who drank champagne and ate salmon and strawberries and cream under a striped awning decorated with red, white and blue flowers. After the presentation of an inscribed silver tray from the farm staff to the couple, the band played “All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor.” Prince Andrew is a Royal Navy helicopter pilot.