I second the recommendation of technik60 for getting your cartridge retipped by Joe “cartridge_retipping-5” on eBay. He is highly qualified and also comes highly recommended by other expert re-tippers. I have firsthand knowledge of his work, which is both superior and reasonably priced.
Cat jumped on turntable
OK, I know the obvious response about this but moving past ditching the cat . . . I was playing my VPI Scout 'table with a Dynavector Karat cartridge when the cat (Jack) leaped onto the 'table. The tone arm slide across the record and the platter stopped. After addressing the situation, I didn't see any obvious problems (but I have an untrained eye) and dropped the needle. The tone arm immediately slide across the record to the center. Upon reflection, it seemed like the tone arm was light since it moved pretty effortlessly. Before taking it, I thought I would solicit some thoughts here.