IT’S that time again, when the cats are distinctly unimpressed, otherwise known as worming and flea treatment time. You would think that they might appreciate the fact that I have changed flea treatments and am now using a fancy new product that lasts for three whole months, but they don’t.

The initial outlay per treatment, as you would expect, is substantially more expensive than before, but considering the effectiveness lasts for three months as opposed to one, and the fact that when you buy three phials you get the fourth free, it pans out quite well overall.

Not that the cats have been spending all that much time at home of late, due in part to the glorious weather and also to the fact that the house next door is empty.

The property is for sale and the family, who also had cats, have already moved out which means that their garden is now a cat-free zone and ripe for exploring.

Pandora, our fluffy black and white girl, is in her element. I watch her from the bedroom window every morning and as soon as she has finished breakfast, she jumps up onto the top of the fence, sharpens her claws, chatters at the starlings on the garage roof and then drops down onto the other side to investigate and explore.

The ease and grace with which she can reach the top of a six foot fence is really quite impressive, but when you think about it, many feline attributes are rather impressive; things like their ability to run at an amazing 31 miles per hour over a short distance and their capacity for finding their way home, also known as psi-travelling.

Experts think that cats may be clever enough to use the angle of the sunlight to determine their way, but it has also been suggested that they have magnetised cells in their brains that act as compasses.

Investigations by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have also determined that 73 per cent of cats display a definite paw preference, when playing with toys, stepping over obstacles, but especially when reaching for food, with females tending to be right pawed while males are more often left pawed.

By comparison 90 per cent of humans are right handed with the remaining 10 per cent of lefties tending to be male. Have a look at your cat and let me know what you think.

But one of the most astounding cat traits, as far as I am concerned, is the fact that on average cats spend up to two thirds of their life asleep, which equates to about sixteen hours a day.

This means that at seven years old my girls have been awake for less than two-and-a-half years and again, according to research, almost one third of that time has been spent cleaning themselves.

There are a number of reasons why cats sleep so much. Firstly, as natural predators with few enemies, they can afford to sleep a lot but also the need for sleep increases, in proportion to the amount of energy that is used.

So when they are out hunting, for example, or leaping on to the top of a six foot fence, or pouncing on a toy mouse, enormous amounts of energy are expended, so all that sleep is needed after all.