Spring has finally arrived – better late than never, as they say! I actually love the spring because the sun shines, we get to see some lovely blue sky with white clouds, and the birds spend more time in the garden. The only downside to the whole thing are the neighbours’ cats… I live in the middle of a housing estate where about 99.9% of my neighbours have at least one cat, much to the eternal frustration of my dog who spends half of his day watching them wiggle their whiskers at him from the top of the garden fence.

Birds and Cat Bells

Unfortunately, when they’re not teasing my dog, the cats like to tease the birds until they disappear from my garden. This is especially unfortunate because it’s breeding season and there are lots of baby birds about. As much as I like cats, I wish they didn’t have an overwhelming urge to chase the birds (they can’t help it, it’s just what cats do), but if they wore a bell on their collars it might give the sparrows a heads-up. According to research carried out by the RSPB, cats wearing a collar with a bell came home with 41% fewer birds than usual. In the spirit of protecting our feathery garden friends and judging by the research, a little bell on your cat’s collar is a simple, inexpensive and effective method of helping the birds out. And if I can hear them coming, it gives me a chance to hide the dog…