It was a pleasure to read the Archbishop's comments regarding our responsibilities towards nature and our environment. However, after my family's experience over the holiday weekend I fear he may only be preaching to the converted.

On Friday, September 5 , we heard loud mewing from the internal yard, which continued throughout the night. On Saturday morning, the gentleman working in the garage behind checked and found nothing, so we knew it was coming from a garage next to us owned by an advertising company. As a side door was open, I threw some dry food and a leaking water bottle and assumed the cat would be alright till Tuesday morning.

We neither saw nor heard anything till evening when loud howling started again, so my husband decided to phone the owner. He stated his son now ran the business and would come to open the garage on Sunday morning when he returned from abroad, also alterations had been made to the garage and we shouldn't throw more food as the cat would not have access to it!

We were relieved to hear nothing on Sunday, but at about 8 p.m. howling started and my husband rang again, to be told the son was too tired and had to sleep. When he commented that his son didn't appear to care much for animals, this was taken as an insult and the phone was slammed down.

Because of the high temperature and humidity, I rang on Monday morning and was told by the lady of the house that her husband wasn't available but "they knew about the situation and everything was in hand". I thanked her, but when we heard plaintive sounds in the evening we contacted the police, who contacted the owner, to be told "he was bringing a carpenter on Tuesday morning as it would be difficult to set free"! Contact was then made with the Civil Protection Unit who offered to come and free the cat, as long as permission was given. We were relieved to hear this, but surprise, we still heard frantic mewing at night.

On Tuesday morning I introduced myself to the son as the person concerned about the cat, and was appalled when he shrugged his shoulders and said "what could I do about it".

I replied that I wanted to know if it was still alive and needed to be taken to a vet, so I was coming down. I was joined by a neighbour from across the road who had also heard the howling at night. We waited patiently as he chatted to a client or colleague, but they suddenly disappeared upstairs. After about 15 minutes I asked an employee going up to remind his boss we were still waiting. Eventually the maid come down and with a wide smile said we had permission to check the garage. I declined as access had been refused over the weekend and I only needed to know if the cat was dead or alive. The smile never wavered and I was so stunned and lost for words, we walked away. And I still do not know what happened to the poor cat.

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