WALES – The prospect of some fearsome cat may conjure up images of a majestic lion stalking its prey or a graceful tiger waiting to pounce.
However, in one Monmouthshire town, the ferocious cat causing problems is a pet black cat.
So while many homes come with a big warning at the front door about a potentially angry dog the family of black cat Heston – named after culinary heavyweight Heston Blumenthal – have actually had to put up a sign up to warn people about their cat.
Some neighbours cross the road to avoid Heston
The five-year-old Heston is extremely protective of his home in Caldicot and visitors often think the family has a guard dog – not a small black cat.
‘The Guard cat on duty’
If there’s one thing Heston simply cannot stand, it’s people posting letters and parcels through the letterbox or entering the path or garden at the front of his house.
He has snapped numerous postmen in the past – including one who left with blood on his arm – and one person even thought he had been bitten by the family’s guard dog, only to find out it was actually the pet cat.
Heston was once hanging onto a mechanic’s leg in the front garden (Photo: Bruce Robertson)
Some of the neighbors call Heston the “devil cat” and his owner, Bruce Robertson, has now put up a sign at the front door to warn people about Heston.
The sign reads as follows: “Beware! Guard cat on duty. Do NOT put fingers through mailbox.”
Steelworker Bruce, 58, stated: “When the post goes through the letter box Heston puts his paw through to grab the post.
“Heston doesn’t like people coming in the garden and once the mechanic came over to deliver my MOT certificate and he thought we had a guard dog, not a cat.
“I heard the mechanic shouting from the bottom of the path and Heston was there, hanging onto his leg. He just wouldn’t let him up the path.
“Some of our neighbors even cross the road to avoid him.
