My cat Posy, a tortoiseshell tabby, lives with my family in a house in London, England. Like most cats Posy is never pleased to see another cat on her territory - or anywhere, for that matter. Whenever she encounters a fellow feline, her hair stands on end, and she begins to hiss. In extreme cases, she sets up a yowling that alerts the whole neighborhood. Though she may be a proud defender of her turf, there is a reason why my dad has always referred to her as “a cat of very little brain.” One day my mum came home with a purchase she was delighted with – a large tea cozy in the shape of a cat, with all the cat features, from ears to tail, drawn in. Naturally, when teatime rolled around the next afternoon, out came the new tea cozy to keep the pot warm. It received a lot of admiration from the rest of the family because it had the look and poise of a real cat. This cat looked almost regal sitting there, guarding the pot, with a half-smile on his cloth face. Suddenly, a slight sound emerged over the clink of teaspoons on china – a slow, steady hiss. I turned around to see Posy behind me in the kitchen doorway, hair standing on end, ears laid back, staring straight at the tea cozy. The tea cozy stared back. Posy edged nearer with suspicion, as her eyes narrowed, while she emitted more hissing sounds as she sized up her rival – a rival who’d not only managed to get INTO her house but was now ON her table. And here was the family doing nothing about it. Needless to say, we had almost fallen off our chairs laughing by this time – we couldn’t believe she actually thought the tea cozy was a real cat! Luckily, Posy stopped short of pouncing on the inert intruder. Eventually we took pity on her, lifted the cozy off the pot and finally convinced her that, the presence of this particular cat on her home turf was no good reason to cause fur to fly.