Newshound Ady & Flo www.sunlive.co.nz

Great news this week from our friends at the ARRC. They've been busy getting stray cats off the street, re-homing – or re-herding – lots and even taking care of their ability to breed uncontrollably.

Apparently, they've de-sexed 20 cats, re-homed 40 and contained seven colonies – just in the last month.
This is good news, considering Ady and myself have also had a good June campaign. We sent about a dozen cats home – some at high speed. One of the friendly felines that frequents Robbins Park set a new land speed record across the old bowling green. While another at Te Puna discovered it's possible to do the ‘Jesus Jive' – that is walking on water – as it scorched across the fish pond, hurtling its way to the gap in the fence. We also woke up several cats that were sleeping inappropriately, such as on top of fences and roofs.

And in an unusual departure from our target species, we despatched a freight train this week, and found it necessary to bark severly until it ran away. Let me tell you, it sure was making tracks by the time we'd finished with it.

As for smaller targets, there was a rat in Granny's vege patch this week, which we ‘relocated' further down the driveway, whereby Chad, one of the aforementioned cats, (now awake), dealt with, under a reciprocal pest management strategy in our neighbourhood. It is a loose sort of understanding, by which we make a lot of noise and run around the rodent madly, until it scarpers and ends up in the territory of a feline that is better resourced to administer its rights.
Ady says all this is just bureaucratic speak for ‘cats are cleverer' but I prefer to think of it as ‘outsourcing to specialists in their field'.

Anyway, great work from Dr Liza and the ARRC Wildlife Centre team, and remember if you need a ‘specialist' for outsourcing some rodent control in your neighbourhood, give them, or the kind folk at the SPCA, a holler. They're bound to have a savvy feline on their books that will handle the job – and be a great family member too. Just no more in our neighbourhood, okay? We're well-resourced with special agents already.

- Flo