Do you not think it is as cruel to block a cats' natural predatory instincts as it is to keep a bird in a cage (a practice I despise)?

We have always neutered our cats, as I have seen what having one litter after another can do to a she-cat. I've also had to help patch up battle-damage on a friends' tom-cat, and am aware that they will often disappear for weeks on end.

But we never bell them. Some choose to hunt, others' don't. Ziggy hunts, Dusty contents herself with chasing, eating and occasionally sicking up spiders and daddy-long-legs.

The world has more than enough sparrows and far too many pigeons. Rats and mice (especially the former) are fair game as far as I'm concerned.

Should Ziggy ever bring home a hamster or guinea-pig, we would of course rescue it, have it treated if necessary and try to find the owners or a home for it. But vermin are vermin and in hunting them, Ziggy is merely carrying on the honourable traditions of his ancestors.