Friday 11 March 2011

I love cats but .......


I am a cat lover, have almost always been owned by a cat and will most certainly allow another cat to choose me when my life is such that I am not away a lot.

There are a large number of cats living on our small estate and I welcome a few of them into the house (separately) most days. To digress slightly, two of them are friends and both hate a third so sometimes it’s a question of one being bundled out the front door as another comes in the back! However I am beginning to wonder if perhaps my welcome was not such a good thing!

The problem is that most of my neighbours, particularly those with cats, have turned their gardens over to either ‘graveyard’ chips, large sharp stones or pieces of slate which means that the cats won’t use them as their “powder rooms!”

Therefore, every time I spend a few sunny hours in the garden, turning the soil over and despatching the weeds, I can see the cats almost queuing up at the gate with their legs crossed!

The next time there is a nice sunny day and I feel the urge to tidy up the garden I have to first prowl around with rubber gloves, a shovel and a bag to get rid of all the deposits left by my friends!

This does seem a bit unfair to me – firstly by my cat owning neighbours who, by chipping/stoning their gardens force their cats to use mine and secondly by the cats themselves who spend a few happy hours relaxing on my mat, being fussed over by me, only to then reward me by using my garden as a loo!