Kittens Kluster

I heard a news report today that an RSPCA centre was overwhelmed with several donations of kittens - a substantial rise over the last few years and there seems to be no significant reason for the high influx! Errr could be something to do with perhaps a very frisky Tom cat going on his rounds and "doin the buis" so to speak - especially as the kittens all seemed to look the same - or am I just plain "tch - simples"??

I remember as a child on my grandparents' small-holding an abundance of cats could be found on the farm specifically kept there to keep the rat and mice population down and they were very successful at it too!! My grandparents bred chickens, turkeys etc., all free range and the cats were the best form of pest control available at the time - and the cheapest!! The king of the cat clan there was a massive Ginger cat - known affectionately as "Tom" of course at home - and he was a BIG Ginger cat too. However every Spring and late Summer he would disappear from the family small-holding in search of other ladies because he had "serviced" all the ones at home and needed to increase his clan elsewhere so to speak!! Tom became an ugly looking cat over the years because obviously straying on to other tom cat territories he had to fight his way in. Every time he came back to my grand-parent's home he had invariably sustained another fight injury, whether it was another nick in his already battered ears, a bloodied nose and the occasional missing tooth - but he always seemed to be wearing a smile on his face - so one assumes he often won his battles or could it be something else that made the fights worthwhile!! Either way he was the most adorable and affectionate Tom cat on the farm and he lived there for many years. I always remember the year he went off he was 14 years old and still making merry on his usual rounds but he never returned, my grandmother spent a long time looking for him but he was never found. We like to think he just curled up somewhere and died peacefully not making it quite home in time. We missed him and I actually ended up having a kitten of his "Sandy" from his last brood so his memory lived on through Sandy and us. I like to imagine him still doing his rounds and wearing that big smile!! So come on RSPCA use a bit of basic logic and remember how nature and Tom cats work!! :)