Leader: Cats just enjoy being centre of attention

WHAT is it about cats? Last week a pet cat stole the show at the Conservative Party conference when Home Secretary Theresa May cited a case where an illegal immigrant could not be deported because he had bonded with a domestic moggie.

It was not quite so simple, of course. But the court ruling in the case did seem to back up the argument that the moggie was evidence of a settled domesticity.

Now two couples in Stornoway have gone battling to law over the ownership of a pet cat called Oscar. Or should that be Smudge? The cat strayed from his home, a couple in a house half a mile away took him in and now, months later, the two households are fighting a legal battle over ownership

Cats have an extraordinary propensity to bring out the most intense emotions. This is strange as cats themselves can be extraordinarily cool and aloof, giving every appearance that their human owners are in fact their servants and at their every beck and call. Cats show none of the loyalty of dogs. They do not perform tricks. They do not offer paws. They do not fetch sticks. Instead, they commandeer the best chairs, force their owners to abandon favourite cushions and sprawl on window ledges. Might Oscar/Smudge be playing one off against the other? Heaven forfend.