diff --git a/src/fm/last/irccat/CatHandler.java b/src/fm/last/irccat/CatHandler.java
index 8020bc0..b4ca34f 100644
--- a/src/fm/last/irccat/CatHandler.java
+++ b/src/fm/last/irccat/CatHandler.java
@@ -17,85 +17,109 @@
 */
 package fm.last.irccat;
 
-import java.net.*;
-import java.io.*; 
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.LinkedList;
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.net.Socket;
 
-// passes command to external program and returns results back to irc
-class CatHandler  extends Thread {
-        
-        IRCCat bot;
-        Socket sock;
+/**
+ * Utility class to handle IRC cat output text.
+ * 1) Handle parsing of initial line of the outgoing text
+ * which can contain metadata about the recipients of
+ * the message (channels or users) and whether its a /topic msg.
+ *
+ * 2) call the IRC cat bot the caller passes in, sending the text lines.
+ */
+class CatHandler implements Runnable {
+  public static final String TOPIC_TOKEN = "%TOPIC";
+  public static final String ALL_CHAN_TOKEN = "#*";
 
-        CatHandler(Socket s, IRCCat b){
-            sock = s;
-            bot = b;
-        }
-        
-        public void run(){
-            try{
-                BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
-                        new InputStreamReader(
-                        sock.getInputStream(), "UTF-8"));
-                String inputLine = new String();
-                String recipients[] = null; 
-                boolean all = false;
-                boolean topic = false;
-                int i = 0;
-                while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
-                	if(i++==0){
-                		String[] words = inputLine.split(" ");
-                		if(words[0].equals("%TOPIC")) {
-                            topic = true;
-                            inputLine = inputLine.substring(7);
-                            String[] newwords = new String[words.length-1];
-                            System.arraycopy(words, 1, newwords, 0, newwords.length);
-                            words = newwords;
-                        }
-                        if(words[0].equals("#*")){
-                			// send to all channels
-                			all = true;
-                			inputLine = inputLine.substring(3);
-                		}else
-                		if(words[0].startsWith("#") || words[0].startsWith("@")){
-                			String addressees[] = words[0].split(",");
-                			for(int j=0; j<addressees.length; ++j){
-                				if(addressees[j].startsWith("@")){
-                					// to a user, strip the @ for
-									// sendMessage()..
-                					addressees[j] = addressees[j].substring(1); 
-                				}
-                			}
-                			recipients = addressees;
-                			inputLine = inputLine.substring(words[0].length()+1);
-                		}else{
-                			// nothing specified. use default channel from
-							// config.
-                			recipients = new String[1];
-                			recipients[0] =  bot.getDefaultChannel() ;
-                		}
-                	}
-                    
-                	// now send it to the recipients:
-                	if(all) {
-                    if(topic) {
-                      bot.catTopicToAll(inputLine);
-                    }else {
-                		  bot.catStuffToAll(inputLine);
-                    }
-                  }else {
-                    if(topic) {
-                      bot.catTopic(inputLine, recipients);
-                    }else {
-                      bot.catStuff(inputLine, recipients);
-                    }
-                  }
-                }
-                in.close();
-                //System.out.println("Handler finished.");
-            }
-            catch(Exception e){ e.printStackTrace(); }
-        }
+  private final List<String> lines = new LinkedList<String>();
+  private final IRCCat bot;
+  private final Socket socket;
 
-}
+  private boolean isBroadcastMessage;
+  private boolean isTopicMessage;
+  private String[] recipients = new String[0];
+
+  public CatHandler(Socket s, IRCCat b) {
+    this.socket = s;
+    this.bot = b;
+  }
+ 
+  @Override
+  public void run() {
+    try {
+      getLinesFromStream();
+      checkForTopicMessage();
+      populateRecipientList();  
+      sendLines();
+      //System.out.println("Handler finished.");
+    } catch(Exception e) {
+      e.printStackTrace();
+    }
+  }
+ 
+  private void sendLines() {
+    for ( String line : lines ) {
+      if ( isBroadcastMessage && isTopicMessage ) {
+        bot.catTopicToAll(line);
+      } else if ( isTopicMessage ) {
+        bot.catTopic(line, recipients);
+      } else if ( isBroadcastMessage ) {
+        bot.catStuffToAll(line);
+      } else { // neither topic or broadcast
+        bot.catStuff(line, recipients);
+      }
+    }
+ }
 
+ private void getLinesFromStream() throws Exception {
+   try {
+     BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
+        new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream(), "UTF-8")
+      );
+      String line;
+      while ( null != (line = in.readLine()) ) {
+        lines.add( line.trim() );
+      }
+    } finally {
+      if ( null != socket ) {
+        socket.close();
+      }
+    } 
+ }
+
+ private void checkForTopicMessage() {
+    if ( lines.get(0).startsWith(TOPIC_TOKEN) ) {
+      isTopicMessage = true;
+      lines.set( 0, lines.get(0).substring(7) );
+    }
+ }
+
+ private void populateRecipientList() {
+    String firstLine = lines.get(0);
+    if( firstLine.startsWith(ALL_CHAN_TOKEN) ) {
+      isBroadcastMessage = true;
+      lines.set( 0, firstLine.substring(3) );
+    } else if ( firstLine.startsWith("#") || firstLine.startsWith("@") ) {
+      int length = 0, index = 0;
+      recipients = firstLine.split(",");
+      while ( index < recipients.length ) {
+        length += recipients[index].length(); // track size of text block 
+        recipients[index] = recipients[index].trim();
+        if ( recipients[index].startsWith("@") ) {
+          // to a user, strip the @ for sendMessage()
+          recipients[index] = recipients[index].substring(1); 
+        }
+        ++index;
+      }
+      lines.set( 0, lines.get(0).substring(length + index) );
+    } else {
+      recipients = new String[1];
+      recipients[0] = bot.getDefaultChannel();
+    }
+  }
+}
 
diff --git a/src/fm/last/irccat/IRCCat.java b/src/fm/last/irccat/IRCCat.java
index b269b67..860b9b5 100644
--- a/src/fm/last/irccat/IRCCat.java
+++ b/src/fm/last/irccat/IRCCat.java
@@ -21,18 +21,27 @@
 import org.jibble.pircbot.*;
 import java.net.*;
 import java.io.*;
+import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 
 public class IRCCat extends PircBot {
 
+  // we could use this for situations where an ordered sequence of tasks should
+  // be run on a single worker thread in serial order of task submission.
+  //static final ExecutorService threadPoolManager = Executors.newSingleThreadedExecutor();
+  // a thread pool manager to handle our thread lifecycles
+  static final ExecutorService threadPoolManager = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
+
 	private String nick;
 	private String cmdScript;
 	private String defaultChannel = null;
 	private int maxCmdResponseLines = 26;
 	private XMLConfiguration config;
 
+
 	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
 		try {
 			if (args.length == 0) {
@@ -79,8 +88,7 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
 					Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
 					// System.out.println("Connection on catport from: "
 					// + clientSocket.getInetAddress().toString());
-					CatHandler handler = new CatHandler(clientSocket, bot);
-					handler.start();
+				  threadPoolManager.submit( new CatHandler(clientSocket, bot) );
 				} catch (Exception e) {
 					e.printStackTrace();
 				}
@@ -88,7 +96,11 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
 
 		} catch (Exception e) {
 			e.printStackTrace();
-		}
+		} finally {
+      if (null != threadPoolManager) {
+        threadPoolManager.shutdown();
+      }
+    }
 
 	}
 
@@ -104,7 +116,6 @@ public IRCCat(XMLConfiguration c) throws Exception {
 		setFinger(config.getString("bot.finger",
 				"IRCCat - a development support bot, used by Last.fm"));
 
-
 		try {
 			// connect to server
 			int tries =0 ;
@@ -310,9 +321,8 @@ public void handleMessage(String channel_, String sender, String message) {
 		
 		// now "cmd" contains the message, minus the address prefix (eg: ?)
 		// hand off msg to thread that executes shell script
-        System.out.println("Scripter: ["+respondTo+"] <"+sender+"> "+message);
-		Thread t = new Scripter(sender, channel_, respondTo, cmd, this);
-		t.run();
+    System.out.println("Scripter: ["+respondTo+"] <"+sender+"> "+message);
+    threadPoolManager.submit( new Scripter(sender, channel_, respondTo, cmd, this) );
 	}
 
 	/*
diff --git a/src/fm/last/irccat/Scripter.java b/src/fm/last/irccat/Scripter.java
index bc5d230..1d073c6 100644
--- a/src/fm/last/irccat/Scripter.java
+++ b/src/fm/last/irccat/Scripter.java
@@ -17,41 +17,55 @@
 */
 package fm.last.irccat;
 
-import java.io.*; 
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.LinkedList;
 
 // hands off cmd to shell script and returns stdout to the requester
-class Scripter extends Thread {
-        IRCCat bot;
-        String nick, channel, returnName, cmd;
-
-        Scripter(String nk, String ch, String r, String c, IRCCat b){
-            nick = nk;
-            channel = ch;
-            cmd = c;
-            returnName = r;
-            bot = b;
-        }
+class Scripter implements Runnable {
+  private final IRCCat bot;
+  private final String nick, channel, returnName, cmd;
+
+  public Scripter( String nk, String ch, String r, String c, IRCCat b ) {
+    this.nick = nk;
+    this.channel = ch;
+    this.cmd = c;
+    this.returnName = r;
+    this.bot = b;
+  }
+
+  private Process startProcess() throws Exception {
+    String message = nick + " " + channel + " " + returnName + " " + " " + cmd;
+    return new ProcessBuilder(bot.getCmdScript(), message).start();
+  }
 
-        public void run(){
-            try{
-                Runtime runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
-                Process process = runtime.exec(new String[]{bot.getCmdScript() ,nick + " " + channel + " " + returnName+" "+cmd});
-                InputStream is = process.getInputStream();
-                InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8");
-                BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
-                String line;
-                int i=0;
-                while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
-                    bot.sendMsg(returnName, line);
-                    if(++i==bot.getCmdMaxResponseLines()){
-                        bot.sendMsg(returnName, "<truncated, too many lines>");
-                        break;
-                    }
-                }
-            }catch(Exception e){
-                e.printStackTrace();
-            }
-                        
+  @Override
+  public void run() {
+    BufferedReader reader = null;
+    Process process = null;
+    try {
+      process = startProcess();
+      reader = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream(), "UTF-8") );
+      String line;
+      int lineCount = 0;
+      while ( (line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
+        bot.sendMsg(returnName, line);
+        if ( ++lineCount == bot.getCmdMaxResponseLines() ) {
+          bot.sendMsg(returnName, "<truncated, too many lines>");
+          break;
         }
+      }
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      e.printStackTrace();
+    } finally {
+      if ( null != reader ) {
+        try { reader.close(); } catch (Exception ignored) { }
+      }
+      if ( null != process ) {
+        try { process.destroy(); } catch (Exception ignored) { }
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }