My master Caedmon is a good man, and being a herdsman (which is his day job), he is kind to animals, and he treats me well. He often shares with me titbits of fish and meat from his plate - which pleases me no end. He also gives me freedom to go out of the hovel and roam the fields, looking for unsuspecting mice and birds, so I get the advantages from both handouts and from my own endeavours. There is a certain frisson to be gained from catching my own prey and eating it; I feel that I've achieved something, and it's really what I've been created to do.
However, there is a large number of cats in the neighbourhood who are so accustomed to getting their food from their owners that they can't be bothered to get off their arses and forage for themselves. Consequently they are fat and unhealthy, owing to their lack of exercise. I detect that this is attributable to an unhealthy measure of dependence on their masters and mistresses for their food and home comforts. But Caedmon has told me lately that things are having to change; the landlord has incurred substantial debts, so to help defray these, he is going to have to put up the rents for the householders (and hovel dwellers). In turn this means that my fat feline friends are going to find that their rations are going to be correspondingly cut. So what are these cats going to do to supplement their diet from now on?
If they think that they can come to me for advice as to how to hunt for their own food, they've got another think coming..
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