The cover picture is my cat Joe.

He is half-feral/half-house cat. Very friendly, but it took him five years before he would voluntarily jump on my lap. He regularly catches mice (which get eaten) and occasionally birds (which get rescued). If I played with him the way I did with my previous cats I'd probably lose an eyeball. To him, play always means KILL. Naturally I had him neutered as soon as practicable. I can but hope that the owners of his mother have done same for her.

Trap, Neuter, Return

TNR is far and away the best method for reducing cat populations. Clipping the top off the left ear is the recognised identification for a neutered cat. That mutilation took me a while to come to terms with but I see the logic; anything else would be impractical.

Thing is, there will always be stray cats. They keep the rat and mouse (and rabbit) populations down and as such, perform the service that got cats domesticated in the first place. Far better to maintain a smaller population of well fed ferals than to either poison or shoot them all or leave them alone to have too many kittens that will just die. As responsible humans (hah!) we should be careful to maintain a nicely balanced ecosystem, where cats have a niche.