JTWOC feline Suicide special.

Greetings readers! It's me again with my latest look at what's hot and what's rot in the weird and wonderful world of the cat (are cats strangely beautiful or beautifully strange? Write in!)

This is a drawing I did of what a suicidal cat looks like. Not pretty, is it? No. But it's a good drawing.

A bit of a departure for JTWOC this time as I present the first of a series of special reports, by just me, on the more serious issues affecting today's Mr and Mrs Cat.

The Pain Behind The Purr

Cats appear, externally, to place little importance on their emotional life. They don't yelp, whimper or (and this is why we love 'em!) pant. Does this mean, however, that they don't feel the main six emotions: pain, joy, scared, sad, good and rubbish like the rest of us? Of course not it doesn't not do no. They do feel all these feelings, and more - through their whiskers. That's actually true, really.

PURVIS lived in Marylebone, in apparent bliss and comfort. He ran free amongst the local rhododendron and could count a good acre of nearby garden as his own. He seemed content right up to the end.

Purvis was discovered, drowned dead and wet, in his big posh garden last Wednesday. It appears that he stuck his head in to a deep puddle and held it there until he choked on water and died of it.

Why oh why?

oh why did he do it? A cry for help gone tragically wrong, or had Purvis simply had enough of his nine lives?

Let me tell you about KRAMER. This well liked, dashing young tabby was found dangling from an old oak tree in Budleigh Salterton, Devon on Christmas Eve by Damian Manning, a local fool. Kramer had somehow managed (using his paws and teeth) to thread the end of a 2 foot branch underneath his new tartan collar. He then (presumably) closed his eyes, said a quick cat prayer and stepped off. To his doom.

These

are just two of many recent moggy suicides to be recorded in the UK. Why is it happening? What is driving these poor, upset creatures to this, the ultimate act of desperation?

I don't have all the answers. I don't even have one answer. All I know is that great sadness is part and parcel of being a cat in the 21st Century.

It's a dog's life being a cat. And that's true.