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Any cat owner knows there’s a high chance their cat is being fed by at least five other households in the neighbourhood – that’s just how the cookie crumbles.
But most of the time the cats don’t get caught out.
One exception to the rule is Cole Clark’s long-haired moggy, Tula, who went begging for food at their local Toby Carvery restaurant in Abbey Meads, Swindon – repeatedly.
The 11-year-old Siberian cat arrived home at the weekend with a paper collar attached. “She’d come into the lounge and I could see something on her neck,” Clark, who is a primary school teacher, tells HuffPost UK.
She unravelled the paper collar which revealed a note, dated August 16.
“Does this cat have a home?” the note read, while on the back it said: “Always at Toby Carvery.” Busted.
Clark posted a photo of the note with her greedy moggy in the background on the Abbey Meads Community Facebook Group, writing: “I can imagine she’s been trying for the sympathy vote in the hope of getting some meat!”
She added: “She has a lovely home and spends every night with us but thank you Toby customers / workers for looking out for her!”
The 41-year-old said she couldn’t stop laughing when she found the note.
She went down to the restaurant to let them know Tula wasn’t homeless and they told her how she spent hours each day meowing at staff and customers for food until they shared some with her.
And to top it all off, she’d been going there since lockdown lifted.
After letting the restaurant know that Tula did in fact have an owner and a home, Clark left. “I walked out of the Toby and there she was, sat by the patio tables,” she laughs.
Clark says her friendly feline is quite partial to a bit of ham or chicken. “If you’re in the kitchen and open the fridge, she’ll meow and try to paw you in the hope it’ll be ham,” she says.
Cheese, on the other hand, is not as well received. “She’s a meat-lover, bless her,” Clark adds.
It’s not Tula’s first rodeo either. The mischievous moggy used to visit the local old people’s home, Deadline News reported, and the residents would give her meat paste from their sandwiches.
She’s got game, we’ll give her that.