Final curtain prompts Glenturret cat-call

Having been brought up on Tom and Jerry cartoons, the Diary clearly remembers the horror of discovering that real cats do possess the skills to capture and kill mice (and, for that matter, that real mice tend not to have French nephews that visit them and paint caricatures of the cats in question).

One cat in particular puts Tom to shame. Towser, the world-famous mouser at Scotland’s Glenturret distillery, caught 28,899 mice in her 24-year lifetime – or almost three-and-a-half mice each day. Towser now has a statue at the distillery in commemoration of her work. However, the company has found Towser difficult to replace since her death and is on the prowl for a cat to follow in her paw prints.

In an attempt to find a suitably bloodthirsty successor, Glenturret, which makes The Famous Grouse, has launched a Scotland-wide search for a cat with the necessary mousing skills. The search was carried out among rescue centres run by Cats Protection, and a shortlist of nine has been drawn up, with a decision imminent. The Diary congratulates Glenturret for resisting the temptation to call the appointment something along the lines of “Cat Idol”, as seems to be the trend for any event where a process of elimination is involved these days.

Anyone who wishes to find out more about Cats Protection can do so by calling 08702 099 099.