Pica in cats is very worrying and frustrating. Shahdee had it and had a passion for fibreglass insulation among other things. Since I had a new house that wasn't as well built as it should have been, she was forever finding her way inside the chimney, under the bottom of built-in cupboards,etc. and eating the insulation left there. I was forever blocking off places and using a flashlight looking for tiny openings and bits of insulation sticking out of strange places, but she'd find places that I hadn't. I was sure she would shred her insides from the fibreglass, let alone her lungs when she threw it up, but she lived to 17 and died of kidney failure. She was an extremely neurotic cat and the very worst cat I've had to give sub-q fluids to - in fact it proved impossible to give them routinely.

She also completely confounded me by eating my bra and camisole straps. I'll never forget getting out my very best I.Magnin black lace teddy, an unusually extravagant gift to myself, from a closed drawer and realising that it no longer had straps. I was so confused that I kept turning it inside out looking for them, since it didn't make any sense. Then I kept finding pieces of bra strap in cat vomit. I had to put child locks on all drawers and cupboards. Then she started on wool blankets and sweaters, always eating out the middle of one so that it was hard or impossible to repair.