Parade is referring, of course, to the Stewart Street Veterinary Hospital’s Buttons the cat, who has been named the joint state winner of the Dermcare Clinic Cat of the Year for the second year running.

That was big news in the Western Advocate, obviously (it was on page 3 in Wednesday’s edition), but it also made it into a statewide publication.

Parade’s attention was drawn on Thursday to this week’s edition of The Land, where Buttons has a story (a small story, admittedly) on the front page of The Land Magazine.

How far can all this go?

If Buttons’ popularity proves nothing else, it proves that readers are keen on stories that involve celebrity cats.

Or maybe the world seems to be so full of miserable news at the moment that a light story about a charismatic cat comes as a blessed relief.

As an aside, one of the other stories in The Land Magazine is about a wine bar that’s opened in Walgett – yes, Walgett – in outback north-western NSW.

Parade’s been to Walgett and can say a wine bar is the last thing he would have expected to see in the town.

Having said that, the west can surprise you.

Parade had a drink many years ago in one of those ramshackle clubs you can find on the opal fields near Lightning Ridge and was taken aback when the woman behind the bar said Parade would have to sign in as a guest first.

This was, bear in mind, a club serving a community where the humans were easily outnumbered by the kangaroos and the bar food was a couple of frozen pies in a chest freezer that were then zapped in the microwave.

Parade must have looked a bit sceptical, because the woman at the bar repeated the order about signing in first.

“We’re still a club,” she told Parade. “The same rules still apply.”

So Parade signed in and then ordered a beer – which turned out to be a can taken from a small fridge which was then wrapped lovingly in a stubby holder.