Eat, drink and be self-reliant ... !

Being a very considerate cat owner I've always got my cat's best interests at heart, even to the point of filling the little indent in the manhole cover outside the back door with bottled water so my spoilt feline can feel he's foraging for himself!

It must really gall him to have to be reliant on me, a mere human, for his nourishment. So he politely accepts the morsels I offer, picks at them daintily and for just long enough so that my feelings aren't hurt and then rushes outside to where the food is still on the hoof (or wing!) and where the eating process is still fraught with danger and, let's face it, fun. It's because of their instinct for hunting and it adds a certain frisson to life.

Cat satisfaction levels increase in direct proportion to the level of difficulty in obtaining sustenance. Do I know what I'm talking about? No not really! But I have noticed that Austin's been as skinny as a supermodel up until quite recently. This we've put down to either his "Ginger-vitis" or his picky appetite - or both. However, the last month or so, despite his ongoing fastidiousness with the indoor-already-dead type of food, he's definitely getting more rotund. He must, therefore, be eating out; and who can blame him? Why settle for the prepacked genetically modified pap from the supermarket when there's organic free range a la carte right on the doorstep?

Anyway, nearly all teenagers like eating fast food and they don't come much faster per poundage than a starling or a baby rabbit! On the other hand he could be eating round at Tigger's!