LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Pluto may have been cast out to the darkest reaches
of the Solar System but will always be a friend to the Seven Dwarfs.

The Walt Disney Co. characters have issued a hard-hitting statement
after the world's top astrononomical body decided on Thursday to
relegate Pluto to the lowly status of a "dwarf planet".

School textbooks will have to be rewritten -- and Mickey Mouse's
faithful companion is said by Disney insiders to be anguished over the
fate of his planetary namesake.

But the Seven Dwarfs are not taking it lying down.

"Although we think it's DOPEY that Pluto has been downgraded to a dwarf
planet, which has made some people GRUMPY and others just SLEEPY, we are
not BASHFUL in saying we would be HAPPY if Disney's Pluto would join us
as an eighth dwarf," they insisted.

"We think this is just what the DOC ordered and is nothing to SNEEZE
at."

Pluto the dog made his debut in 1930 -- the same year that a 24-year-old
American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, discovered what until now was
called the ninth and outermost planet.

A white-gloved, yellow-shoed source close to Disney's top dog said: "I
think the whole thing is goofy.

"Pluto has never been interested in astronomy before, other than maybe
an occasional howl at the moon."

Mickey Mouse was unavailable for comment