We have kept him healthy through the usual doses of healthy "things" and to calm him down and as a nod of responsibility we took him off to get "fixed" although it failed to calm his lust for climbing high into trees... and discovering he didn't know how to come down.
I'm quite good with ladders now.
He has a spot inside where he often sleeps (it's in a bookshelf) and his tray of healthy tucker and water resides by the door.
He's a lucky, happy little chap and has a good nature and has even begun to back off stalking the birds we regularly feed out the back because when I growl, I growl.
He is a bit of a wanderer on occasions, as are other moggies in the area, but they're fine by me.
They all have homes, they all get cared for and they all provide some entertainingly unpredictable company at times.
But cats get a bad rap, despite the fact they don't bark incessantly and lay waste anywhere they like.
They do wander, and it is clear there are people out there who do not tolerate that attribute in the slightest. They lay traps.
As the local SPCA crew described that approach in the wake of a cat in the Taradale area being snared in a leg trap this week, it is extreme.
For this trap was clearly a suburban-based thing - not a snare to prevent possums and feral cats from pursuing native birds in reserves.
The damage a wandering domestic moggy can do is, I daresay, pretty minimal so why not take up a hose and water the things off the property.
And if there are several apparently calling by for some reason then call the animal control people - get them to check it out.
But put down some traps?
No, no no.
There's always a better, more humane way.
A loud "shoo!" isn't a bad start.
