I’m a big cat fan; I love their independent nature, the way they train us and not them, the way they seem to tolerate our love and affection without always appreciating it! I’m also aware they have their downsides – not everyone is a fan of the domestic cat. They are supposedly responsible for the deaths of 100 million small animals each year in the UK, 27 million of which are birds.

They can also be quite ungrateful pets at times. They use our gardens as their personal toilets, they fight each other noisily at 3am (often outside my bedroom window) and, as a veterinarian, they are not the most compliant when it comes to examinations and treatments.

Recently, a neighbour’s cat entered our house and sprayed urine up against the wall of our living room. Our own cat, Bob, is a timid fellow – to call him a ‘scaredy-cat’ would be quite a compliment. This recent intrusion of his personal space has sent him into a spiral of personal angst. He has taken to hiding under beds and slinking around the house with a strained look on his face, in case the intruder reappears.

Bob has decided the new cat flap is a thing of dark magic

I thought I had an elegant solution with the installation of a cat flap that reads cats’ microchips and only opens for him. Sadly, Bob has decided the new cat flap is a thing of dark magic and now sits by the back door meowing to be let in, rather than facing the terror of a shiny white, high-tech and not inexpensive personal entry system! I may have to fish the battered old cat flap out of the bin, but I’ll persevere for another week before admitting defeat.

Fortunately, there are other solutions for anxious cats; tryptophan is a daily nutritional supplement that can boost a cat’s natural serotonin levels (the neuro-chemical in our brain that is associated with feelings of calmness). There are also cat pheromone diffusers that pump out a cat facial scent into your house, which can make them feel more relaxed.

Of course, if Bob would just use the cat flap I think life would be much simpler, but for now it’s catnip and bribes of ‘dreamies’ until he gets over this most recent cat-astrophe!