My tabby would eat cheddar, preferably mature level 5, but she was particularly fond of Brie. I used to cut some of the rind into strips for her and leave them balanced on the edge of the plate - while I ate the inside of the cheese with some crusty bread, a small paw would reach up and swipe the rind one strip at a time. And she'd kill for Cambozola.

There you are, you see. Cats have class!

I don't mind domestic cats, and they can eat as many mice and other vermin they can get their paws on but it's the ones allowed to roam and the ferals that I can't stand!

It's the ones that are roaming and the ferals that are eating the most of the mice and other vermin.

Yes, the furry rulers of our home, if they go outside, may catch some of said vermin. But the real exterminators are the ones you can't stand.

And blaming ferals for being feral is blaming the victim for being abandoned

My cat is perhaps one of the real "aristocats". She gets smoked trout each Monday. Now, that's really a good start of the week.

Now I'm not so embarrassed to admit that my cat gets a treat of deli chicken every night before he goes to bed.

The fishy water from the tuna can. I think they can smell it a mile away. Of course the sound of the can opener can mean nothing but TUNA!

See, you don't have these eating issues with dogs. Most of them eat pretty much anything and the crusts from toast are the height of luxury as a treat (especially if a bit of the melted cheese happens to still be clinging to it).

I had a cat who loved mushrooms, raw.

My cat Princess will not eat unless her food is elevated higher than the food for the other cats. And she will only eat out of certain dishes. If I dare to attempt to serve her food or water in a non approved dish, she will put one of her delicate paws on the edge of the offending dish and tip it over onto the floor.

Mine were partial to a nice bit of crab or lobster, or some prawns. One of them adored strawberry icecream.

MiraJane, Copago is posting from Australia, where feral cats are devastating the local fauna, so her attitude is understandable. Feral cats there are a real environmental nightmare.

Okay. I understand that. But it is still blaming the victim for being abandoned.
Feral anythings, such as pigs in Hawaii, can cause environmental devastation. But being place in that environment by humans and left to fend for themselves is not the fault of the animal.

They are born feral- they are not abandoned.

The cats ancestors at one time were brought to Australia by humans. Then abandoned. Then they kittens int he wild. That leads to feral populations, anywhere. People also abandon pets. The pets in turn revert to a wild state.

I live near protected state land. Every spring, abandoned pregnant dogs and cats show up, along with kittens and puppies. Humans initially created the problem. To blame an animal for acting like an animal when humans introduced them into the environment is unfair to the animal. And does not solve the problem.

We have the same situation here with rabbits and camels. Both are introduced animals brought out for a specific purpose and then abandoned. There are now over 200 million rabbits here- does anyone want a new pet?

I've read about the horrendous rabbit problem in Australia. Have the authorities made any real strides in controlling the bunny population?

They have tried- the disease myxomatosis was introduced in the 1950s and worked for a while, but eventually the rabbits became immune. The calicivirus was 'accidentally' released from a scientific lab in the 1990s, and also worked well, but again, the little blighters grew resistant.

Little blighters? I'm covering my sensitive ears.

FT rabbits are obviously excluded from blighter-hood.

My sister worked in Australia for slightly over a year and I joined her for a months vacation. One night, people she met there took us on a rabbit hunt. Since I knew that rabbits were a huge problem, I didn't have a problem trying to shoot as many as possible.

Sorry, floppsy.

You ain't seen nothing yet, Oz. We have 40 million rabbits in these small islands and you only have 200 million in that vast continent! I blame the Romans.

...and there is not one wild rabbit in the whole of Hong Kong.

Same thing in the FL Everglades, now being overtaken by abandoned pets like pythons, which grow to immense size and can easily kill an alligator. The area is under enough stress with nitrates in the aquifer from the massive agricultural dominance in Palm Beach County. Almost anything can thrive in FL and it already has unwanted noxious weeds (three major trees/shrubs: Australian Pine, Brazilian Pepper and Melaleauca) as well as fire ants - now considered native in the southern states.
On the other hand, honeybees are endangered now - possibly a side effect of the presence of Africanized bees.

Humans are too often the problem. In the US, trying to effect a quick fix they import a carp species to clear a lake of noxious water weeds. That works very well. Now the carp have become the problem and the unwanted species. What next?