Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

This is Marcel, the ‘neighbours cat’ (but he firmly believes he lives with us). He’s turned this cabbage tree into his own personal scratching post, and those claws need to be sharp – we have rodents the size of small ponies around here – thanks to living near a river. He’s not the only Ginger Menace we have visit us, but he’s here every day. Unlike his brother (Simba), who is a very rare visitor and mysteriously turned up just hours after I hung up the new bird feeder.

Simba, trying to convince me he’s not seen the bird feeder, no not one little bit at all.

It didn’t take long for the local waxeyes to discover the new bird feeder full of lovely fat, but if they find a cat sitting next to it every day, I’m sure they won’t be back!