OH dear! I certainly seem to have ruffled Miss Hartley's feathers by having the temerity to object to other peoples' cats slaughtering the wildlife and defecating all over my garden (December 21).

Her own cats must live in a little pussy paradise. They don't even need to hunt far from home to find their prey. Their mistress entices the birds into the garden with food.

One must, however, give the lady credit for attempting to minimise the nuisance to neighbours. She did talk to the cats about it, and I can only express my astonishment that this tactic proved to be unsuccessful.

As for her other attempted justification for passing the responsibility for her free-range moggies to other people, I would like to set out the following scenario for her. A large dog invades her garden, kills her cats, and deposits a large pile of excreta on her lawn before leaving.

The dog's owner then comes along and assures her that the dog only kills for fun, even though he had been asked not to. It is natural, and it is what dogs do.

Would she still maintain her present level of equanimity?

I am a cat lover, but living in a built-up, urban area, I consider that keeping a free roaming cat in such an environment is both selfish and anti-social. If the urge to keep a cat ever became overwhelming, I would ensure that I retained sufficient control over its movements to prevent it from becoming a public nuisance.

I would like to thank the many people who contacted me with sensible suggestions for solving the problem. As for the man who telephoned me from Clifton - yes, that would certainly provide a very permanent solution to the problem, but I did specify that it should be humane.

Mike Key,

Ascot Road,

Wigginton,

York.

Updated: 08:48 Monday, January 03, 2005