herrd

It strikes me there would just be no issue if people didn't feed other people's cats! The prevailing attitude seems to be "tough luck, that's what cats are like" but if they weren't getting fed by strangers there would be no issue. Not one person has said, "yeah, good point, I will stop feeding somebody else's moggy". A pal of mine out a collar on her cat with a tag that did "do not feed me" but it carried on. She went and knocked on the door of the feeders, who became indignant and told him to bugger off. They basically thought that because they fed the cat, they had some kind of ownership. It ended in a punch up. Yet that "ownership" conveniently doesn't extend to vet bills, surgery, cattery bills, microchipping, spaying, etc, etc, does it? I love cats and have at least six that come through my garden every day, yet I don't feed any of them. It strikes me as a basic courtesy to respect other pet owners. Basically, feeding other people's cats naffs off their owners, so if you are doing it, you are doing it for entirely selfish reasons. The cat won't go hungry, as it will just go home and eat.

Cat is defo not skinny... Black and white.

I wanted to take a temperature test on this thorny topic, as I have several neighbours who feed my cat and it is driving me bonkers! He was catnapped last summer, missing for six weeks, and only surfaced when a neighbour (on my road) took him to the RSPCA in Camberwell to have him checked up. Then the microchip scan meant her game was up, and we got him back. She had made him her house cat, which struck me as mean and selfish. Despite a poster campaign, door knocking, distraught toddler, etc. Cats, being the "slappers" of the pet kingdom, will go where they are pampered. You can't blame them. I probably would, too. I have to confess to installing a GPS collar on him, and I tracked his movements like a suspicious lover. Call me sad, but if he went missing again, I wanted to know where he was shacked up. Of course, the collar stayed on for three days before it was lost, but it did give me enough time to draw up a list of flop houses he frequents. Things came to a head last week when a fella in the garden behind started shouting our cat's name and rattling a box of biscuits. I felt like fronting him out, but, being British and ostensibly a coward, I went and made a cuppa and moaned to the wife about it, instead. On the one hand, maybe I should relax: the moggy seems happy, and I am saving money on cat food. On the other hand, nobody would feed somebody else's dog, would they? And I think feeders need to understand that when the cat stays out overnight, or even for several days, as has happened since, it causes great distress to others, especially young children, who don't understand. Any other experiences of this out there? Advice?

Yes, Fox, a sort of P.N.A test..?

Drawing up a rota of people to sit and wait for somebody to drop off bottles of urine (or not) might be quite the whackiest comment ever placed on this forum. Which is saying something. I can see the wife's face now...

Agreed. The "chaos" in question makes me yearn for a quiet life on the Syrian border...

Fox, we bow to your superior wisdom. I think...

And on the day the Turner Prize features a nominee making sculptures out of turds... Coincidence? Or next year's Turner, with all our comments on a giant screen behind a central display of piss bottles?

Maybe a POW photo lab is in a basement somewhere on Melbourne Grove? It's as credible a theory as any offered thus far...

I heard a particularly vicious focaccia was brandished in anger in the ED Deli, as two mums tugged over the last rosemary and garlic infused item. Does that count?

Is it too early to lunge for the gin bottle?

Healey: as it's about the umpteenth time Fox has posted on the topic (though he/she claims we shouldn't be giving them any attention) it seems he/she has been giving it an awful lot of microanalysis. Those long winter evenings must fly by chez Fox...

As for keeping warm in the winter/while smoking, I suspect a gaggle of disgruntled former regulars may well go and torch the place when they hear of the ?4 scotch eggs...

Why don't you guys put all this indignation to good use and attend your next local Neighbourhood Watch meeting? You could vent your frustrations in a supportive arena, actively contribute something positive to our communities, we'd have more cohesive streets and, hopefully, less crime. Thomas who organizes ours is a good egg, and the local cops who attend are really nice fellas. The next one is 23rd May @ 19.30 at Goose Green community centre. As a resident of Oakhurst Grove, I'll be there. BTW, I am "guilty" of occasionally holding a parking spot outside my house as my wife has fused vertebrae after childbirth and finds lugging a toddler and shopping painful. It can also be dangerous, as he legs it off and into the road, and she can't always chase him, which is really scary as cars tear down this back street at 50mph some times. So, please think before calling people "twonks" and all the rest of it, it's a bit hurtful, and my actions really were not designed to offend. But I shall stop it now, as I just had no idea how angry it made folk. You live and learn. I used to live in Tower Hamlets, guess I brought a few bad habits along, sorry!!! Consider myself well and truly told off. :-$ Let's all try and get on!

"There's not one bloke creating that much piss, it's at least 5 of them who probably run a business." So there's a market for bottling and selling the stuff? I'd love to see the Dragon's Den pitch, esp as they passed around a 'sample'...::o