Konstantin and Vladimir

Last year, Konstantin left his native Slovakia to search for his long-lost cat, Vladimir, in the United States. Vladimir had been smuggled by cat smugglers during the break-up of the former Soviet Union. The smugglers were part of an international cat smuggling ring, called the Fabulous Feline Moochers. When Konstantin arrived in America, he went from city to city, looking for his only friend in the world, Vladimir. He had almost abandoned all hope, when he finally found Vladimir in the Bronx Zoo. Was he ever amazed at Vladimir's transmogrification.

The United States

The United States is a nation in the Western Hemisphere. It consists of forty-eight contiguous states on the North American continent; Alaska, an enormous peninsula which forms the northwestern most part of North America, and Hawaii, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. It also holds several United States territories in the Pacific and Caribbean. The country shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and a water border with Russia. In terms of total area, including water, the United States is either slightly larger or smaller than the People's Republic of China, making it the third or fourth largest nation by total area. The ambiguity lay in whether one includes two territories claimed by India but governed by China when calculating China's size. The United States and China follow behind Canada and Russia in terms of total area. The United States is the world's third largest country by total land area, following China and Russia.