There is the first breed. They are the genuine cat lovers who love all their feline friends. They feed the cats around the neighbourhood, round them up for check-ups and spay them, clean after them and generally look after the furry mews.

Then there are those who feed cats because they believe in karma. That is all they do, feed the felines. Because if you take care of your feline friends, you will get a long and healthy life. Apparently they will only pick up the habit of feeding cats when they are retired or semi-retired. Which is really paradoxical. You only do "good" because of the benefits you will reap, not because you possess a single iota of genuine emotion. Humph.

Well, my neighbourhood possesses both sorts. And here is a rivalry between the two factions.

Then there is a pair of housewives who do the whole caboodle. The clean, feed, doctoring thing. They keep complaining to my mom, who isn't really an animal lover and hence neutral, that they hate those other three. Their main gripe is the type of food the other faction feeds the cats. Apparently, they feed dried cat food to the stray felines. My mom tells me that these housewives buy fresh fish fillet and cook them for the cats. They have an entire fridge just to cater to the feline palate. Wow. And that is why they hate the whole dried cat food thing.

Of course this is just neighbourhood gossip. But it makes for an interesting topic. Personally I think the cats are just happy to be fed.

To set the record straight, I'm not really a cat-lover. However, like most of those females who fancy themselves to be of the "cutesy" mould, I do go ga-ga over the entire range of cat related items. I can't help it. There's something about those Japanese kittens that trigger some neurons in my brain that go "cute, cute, cute... kawaii!"

Oh and I know I'm cutesy. Irritatingly cute. I wonder if sarcastic self-realisation is enough as a penance for being one of those cute perky people.

And when I mean cute, I mean one of those irritating females with a childish voice and a penchant for pink, floral prints and stuffed animals. Oh and giggle. But I draw the line at Hello Kitty. And some pastels. Yuck. But not some of the other Sanrio characters.

And does anyone know how to spell cutesy? Did I get it right?