Wednesday night I saw Nonie Newton-Breen as the outspoken nun in Late Nite Catechism 2: Sister Strikes Back. Prompted by a question from the audience, “Sister” addressed whether pets can enter into heaven. The official Vatican call is no, because animals don’t possess immortal souls. Sister’s personal view is “Dogs yes, cats no.”
Which leads me to run a second installment of “Pet Songs” sooner rather than later.

1. Hounds of Love. Title song of Kate Bush’s 1985 album, her fifth album and among her most popular. Not a very pleasant image, being pursued relentlessly by hounds of love. The video for the song eschewed any literal version of the lyrics in favor of visual cues from Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps.
2. Get Down. Leo Sayer, in a decidedly unthreatening tone, cautions “You’re a bad dog, baby, and I don’t want you around.”
3. And Your Bird Can Sing. There’s a killer 1980 cover by The Jam listed as “previously unavailable” when issued on the invaluable The Jam Extras CD in 1992.
4. Spiders & Snakes. For me, Jim Stafford’s 1974 comedy romance song falls in the same category as Loudon Wainwright III’s hit of two years earlier, “Dead Skunk”: Bugs and squashed skunks may not be pets, but seldom have they been sung about with such affection and amusement. If it weren’t for Wainwright, Stafford would have that genre pretty much to himself, since his repertoire also includes “Your Bulldog Drinks Champagne,” “Cow Patti” and “Turn Loose of My Leg.”
5. What’s New, Pussycat? Bacharach/David tune popularized by Tom Jones, the theme song for the Woody Allen-penned film of the same name. It’s a relationship song, but all that meowing makes you hope it’s a pet song.