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This is Hector, pictured here helping himself to my tea in the mug I received at the recent Icatcare (formerly Feline Advisory Bureau) annual Easy to Give Awards event at Millbank in London. He's my cat.....or perhaps he's our cat...that is, when we haven't disowned him for attacking our exposed toes for peeping out of the duvet in the middle of the night. Or maybe we don't own him at all...

The thing is, Hector does grace us with his presence occasionally, but he spends much of his life with our neighbour Jeff next door. Jeff doesn't have much company during the week and as he's well into his '80s he leaves the heat on during the day. Hector is a Korat and like many domestic cats he hails from a warmer climate. He appears to enjoy warmth and the cynic in me suspects that's why he spends much of his day with Jeff. However, Jeff clearly loves Hector and we suspect that as well as having a fondness for active radiators Hector also loves Jeff as he is very vocal around him.

Korats are renowned for forming strong bonds with people; according to wikipedia, until recently, Korats were not sold, but only given as gifts. In fact, our experience of having Korats is that they form such strong bonds that it's very much like having a dog, except that they are possibly even more gregarious....Hector knows some of our neighbours better than we do. If we ever found ourselves in a position of having to move, being forced to wrench Hector away from Jeff would be as much of a disincentive as having to pay stamp duty tax. Perhaps even more difficult, as the emotions involved would be much stronger.

The inside of my Icatcare mug bears their aspiration which says, "All cats, owned and unowned, are treated with care, compassion and understanding." Through its Cat Friendly Practice programme (click here) Icatcare has done a great deal to improve the sympathetic treatment of people's pet cats in veterinary practice so I'm aware of what they've done for 'owned cats'. Whilst at the awards day I was listening to the presentations recognising the efforts of those trying to improve cat welfare I turned to the lady standing next to me and joked, "...most of the 'unowned cats I ever met just wanted me to **** off." Which is my light-hearted way of saying that looking after all unowned cats is quite a tall order.

Your view of cats, owned, unowned or just visiting might vary according to whether they were keeping an elderly person company, wiping out some rare flightless bird on a lonely Pacific atoll...or munching happily on your local song thrush. I'm always pleased when Hector helps himself to the rats in our compost heap....less pleased when he regurgitates them on the carpet. But whatever your view of cats and who owns who it's true that they need to be treated with understanding and if you do they will return something that looks, particularly in Jeff and Hector's case, very much like love.

If you'd like to find out more about the work of Icatcare and perhaps reduce your tax bill by helping cats everywhere then click here.

(Icatcare is registered Charity number 1117342).
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