[svenrufus]

I'm on tenterhooks at this time of year, as it is guaranteed that the swarms of cats in our area come into our garden at night and torture frogs. Ours is the only garden for some distance that hasn't been decked or concreted over and it is a magnet for the cats as the only natural playground in an urban area.

Lying in bed at 3am listening to frogs screaming is horrible, and last year I bought a water pistol to dispatch the cats. At times, I have seen 6 cats gathered around one frog, waiting their turn. By the end of the season they had learned to scarper as soon as they heard me open the window as they knew they were in for a drenching. I have got quite adept at opening the window silently so I get the chance to get the buggers. During the summer, every time I hear a cat bell on the collar, the adrenalin starts up as I wait for the frogs to give voice.

Incidentally, whenever people say 'Put a bell on your cat' no-one ever thinks about the noise it makes disturbing the neighbours as they maraud through their gardens in the deep of the night - it doesn't save wildlife, and is intensely irritating to non cat owners, so why bother? There are so many reasons to hate cats, frogs screaming in the nght is just one of them.

PS I had a cat as a kid and actually quite like them as individuals, I just never realised at the time what a pest they are but now I do, I wouldn't be so selfish as to own another again.