--Fires ran rampant yesterday. A mother and her son were injured last night in a fire in Somerville. One firefighter was treated and released at the hospital. [Boston Globe] --Another fire broke out in Haverhill last night, and people were injured jumping out of the windows. No one died in the blaze, but 24 people have lost their homes. [Boston Globe, Boston Herald] --The state Supreme Judicial Court is letting Heidi Erickson, who kept......

Oh, Bostonist does love cat-hoarding. OK, not really - we think it's cruel and repellent, but the fact that it is a pathology that actually exists amuses us in a sick way (as does the fact that people in New York are managing to take their pet dogs on airplanes by claiming they are "emotional support dogs" and the owners would bug out if they had to be dogless for even a few hours; but......

The Cat Lady of Beacon Hill is back. Readers may recall Heidi Erickson, who was ousted from apartments on Charles Street and in Watertown in 2003 after city inspectors discovered several starved cats and many many more dead ones (over 100 in all), most of them frozen, in her humble, urine-stinking abodes. (Wait - did we mention the Great Dane? There was a Great Dane too.) Aside from periodic, highly amusing court appearances - in......