Fred is a lovely cat who lives down the road from us. When our cat was alive, Fred used to come up to the patio doors and peer into the kitchen but as soon as our cat sensed he was there (she was blind but had an acute sense of smell) she would growl and hiss in the general direction of Fred and he would back off.

When our cat died last year, we were distraught and Fred would come to the house and make a big fuss around us, helping us to get through the difficult loss. He was totally relaxed in the house as can be seen from the photo!

However, there is another lovely cat, Felix, who lives closer to us but who hates Fred and used to pounce on him every time he went down the road. Both cats used to end up with clumps of hair missing and bloody ears and they couldn’t seem to settle their differences. Felix used to hide in the hedge and wait for Fred to go by. Fred got wise to this eventually and used to take a detour over fences and through gardens to avoid Felix.

After nearly a year, Fred stopped coming to see us – he was getting old and obviously didn’t want the aggravation of having to ‘run the gauntlet’ every day. We still see him, rolling around in the sun outside his house but he doesn’t venture far these days.

Felix has taken advantage of the situation and now spends much of his day in our garden and kitchen. As soon as his owners go out, he is under the gate and at the patio doors and you can guarantee that he will be fussing around us within minutes of hearing our car arrive home. Felix doesn’t have such a nice nature as Fred – we think he must have been ill-treated in a past life as he will suddenly hiss at us and either claw or try to bite us, for no reason, sometimes if we move a bit quickly. He knows it’s wrong as he’ll shoot out of the door when this happens.

We are just grateful to have a cat visit us – we get the pleasure without the pain!