ET

Pet subjects (Filed: 02/06/2001)

Celia Haddon answers your pet queries. This week: helpful cats

Cats can be of practical help to their owners, constantly watching and caring, not necessarily the aloof stereotype we hear so much about. Every night on my way to bed, I turn off the television and lights and lock the hall door. One night, I was reading in bed and Sam, my black moggie, kept crying at my bedside, running down the stairs, running back up beside my bed and miaowing again.

Finally, I got up, and he ran down the stairs and sat at the hall door looking up at the door handle. I had forgotten to lock it. This type of door has no latch, so unless it is locked, anyone is free to open it from the outside.

I live alone. The cat must have noticed that I missed this part of my routine and must have known that I was not safe, otherwise he would not have made such a fuss. A M

WE hear a lot about helpful dogs - guide dogs, dogs for the disabled, mountain rescue dogs - but this is a good example of a helpful cat. Another reader, who has two brother and two sister cats, reports that the sisters, Zoe and Megan, act as guard cats, growling ferociously whenever the doorbell rings. Their brothers, Jake and Luke, don't bother.

Cats also save lives. Sooty, a moggy in Batley, West Yorshire, woke up his family when the house caught fire. In Oregon, Abigail, a blue Persian, saved the life of a toddler by leading his mother to the room where he was choking on a toy.

There have even been guide cats. Rhubarb, an American cat who wore a collar and lead, would take her blind owner to the launderette and the postbox. She would pause to wait at kerbs when there was traffic coming.

My own favourite life-saving pet, however, was an American pet pig called Priscilla. She went swimming (as she often did) with her owner and rescued the family's 11-year-old son who was drowning in deep water. Priscilla became a celebrity overnight. In Chicago, she arrived in a limousine to open a swimming pool, wearing a size-16 purple bikini.

I, too, had strange noises on the roof of our house, like your correspondent. Numerous people were consulted and it was months before the noises were discovered to be coming from rats.

There was no trace of them in the attic, but we found out that they were in the joists between the ceilings and attic floor, which was boarded over. Removing them was a nightmare. But we had to take them up again last autumn. Rodent exterminators just put down poison and, although it kills one lot, it doesn't prevent another. W K, Chester

This is just one of the letters suggesting what might be making strange noises on the roof during the night. Other suggestions were house mice, wood mice, yellow-necked mice, edible dormice (if you live in Buckinghamshire), squirrels, bats, magpies poking about in the gutters, owls and even crows ("they sound as if they are wearing hobnailed boots").

The general advice is to look for droppings and call in pest controllers. If the problem is bats, help from the local naturalist trust is necessary, since they are a protected species.

Oddest of all, the noise may come from cats. "The mysterious scratching noise on my flat roof at night turned out to be a cat using it as a litter tray," wrote a reader.

My new brother-in-law, who is a police dog-handler, was shocked to discover that Jamie, my Cavalier King Charles spaniel, sleeps on the bed with me. He says that this will make Jamie dominant and I shall have difficulty getting him to obey me. I live alone and I love having him on the bed. Must I really make him sleep in the kitchen? T C, Norwich

For the safety and well-being of our dogs, we humans must be in control and our dogs should obey us. The old-fashioned idea was that dogs must never be allowed on beds or chairs, otherwise they would become dominant and disobedient. Yet thousands of people let their dogs get up on chairs and beds without any trouble.

"It's all about privileges and how your dog reacts to them," says Inga MacKellar, a Sussex pet behaviour counsellor (01323 870558). "Dogs are delighted to be allowed on the bed, but some interpret it as a sign of weakness and that's where inappropriate behaviour such as growling can occur.

"If you have control of your dog, you shouldn't have problems. Always ask your dog to sit, then invite him up on the chair or bed. When you want him to get off, ask him to do so. It's a question of teaching your dog manners. Your dog should wait to be asked rather than thinking it has the right to be on the bed."

Celia Haddon regrets that she cannot answer all readers' letters personally. All sick animals should, of course, be taken to a vet. Please email your questions to pets@telegraph.co.uk

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001