ST (16-1-09)

Thanks to Chinky who sent this in - unfortunately this is another case of a single complainant writing in and probably endangering all the cats there. I am also amazed how selective the writer is - she wants birds and butterflies, but not cats because cats apparently in her view, are not part of nature. One wonders what would happen if the birds did something unwelcome - for example, eat from the same upturned litter bin that the writer complained the cats did. Would they then also be complained about because they weren't acting 'naturally'?

This isn't a Disney movie with birds and butterflies flying around you. If you've ever gone hiking, or on a nature trek, you'll notice that nature is full of insects that can and do bite you like mosquitoes. In the US and in many other larger countries, you also need to be careful of deer ticks that carry lyme disease (a friend of mine caught lyme while camping), snakes, bears and other animals that might be far more 'scary' than a few cats. They'll all part of nature too. Nature isn't the sanitised version that the writer seems to want - if she does, it's better that she stay at home and watch it on television.