Completely unrelated to this post, the first test of the House Kitty Cannon Series took place yesterday.

Often spoken about in hushed, reverent tones I finally played it and now I’m one up after avoiding the venus cat-traps with the scores at 9-9. Updates on the next 6 tests in the best-of-seven series will be posted here.

Possibly.

I originally heard about this story on Radio 4’s PM, but after a bit of News Googling I found this version of the story from the Daily Bigot which goes into a bit more detail about the Southampton Catnapper.

There is also a post about the story on the PM Blog. I’ve commented on the feature but in case it doesn’t get approved (as I fear a pro-cat bias in the reporting of this story) I’ve copied my views here :

I am sick to death of selfish cat owners telling me it’s my problem that I object to having to clear up their cat’s excrement before I can mow my lawn, weed my plants or let children play in the garden.

Listening on PM to the cat owner whose cat had been taken I was appalled that she thought that having her animal’s excrement fouling other people’s gardens was fine. And then she pointed out that there were deterrents that could be bought to discourage cats from gardens – is she going to buy them for her neighbours? Why should they pay out their money and spend their time deterring animals which other people choose to have.

I wasn’t surprised by her comments however because 99% of cat owners show the same shocking arrogance. Dog owners can be prosecuted if they leave their dog’s excrement on pavements and other people’s gardens – it’s about time that cat owners were treated in the same way.

The person who relocated these cats has no doubt been driven to this act by the smug superiority of cat owners who believe that non-cat owners are in the wrong for not wanting disease ridden and stinking cat excrement in their gardens.

I will support the cat-napper wholeheartedly until cat owners start taking responsibility for their own animals’ mess. Sadly I expect it to be a long wait.

For the record I’d like to point out that despite the above, and being badly allergic to them, I don’t dislike cats per se. I just don’t see why I should have to clear up their excrement from my garden, and be treated with disdainful arrogance by cat owners when I mention this.

Here are some YouTube highlights. Thanks to those who uploaded them…

Tattva

Govinda (Clip)

Dr Kitt

Die For Love

Govinda (Full)

I’m amazed at how good the quality is of some of these…

I was jigging too much to video anything last night, but when someone YouTubes it I’ll link to it here. Those who, as Shirley Bassey put it, “won’t dance if they don’t know who’s singing” (and they know who they are!) can turn their noses up but Kula Shaker were great fun and played a blinding set. You’d have had to be dead or pig headed not to have enjoyed it – and how pretty was Crispian’s hair?!

Incidentally I recommend visiting www.myspace.com/drjoelmusic, playing “I Can Sing My Song”, and imagining a crowd of people ready for Kula Shaker’s roaring hippy-rock and realising the support act really was just Dr. Joel stood in front of a keyboard doing his stuff. With audience participation as well! What a lovely man… Helen was less impressed but I grinned from ear to ear and joined in enthusiastically. Don’t forget to roar in the tiger song!