As always, I am working on the provided text unprepared (that is, without prior reading of the original novel). [I know, I know, what a shame and things like that :(] Perhaps, those who had the pleasure to read the whole text will give me some help with two following questions:

1) What is the time that the events described in the novel take place at? Does the author give any clues? The novel itself was written in 1974, as the bibliographic reference on this site kindly tells. Berty has seen a film about captain Bligh, which might have been "Mutiny on the Bounty", 1962. On the other hand, as far as I understand, the events in Jeeves and Wooster chronicles have to take place at about the same time, and the earliest Jeeves story appeared in 1916 (again, according to Wodehouse's bibliography collected on this site). Is it possible that the events in the last novel take place about half a century after the first story?

2) Are there any suggestions in the text about the gender of the cat? Is it referred to as "he", "she", or only "it"?