We can’t argue with that. Our postman has just withstood the formidable challenge of walking down a tree-lined street on a sunny day with low humidity to bring us mail. Notice that we did not say it was our mail. But we digress, more about that later.
Canada has had mail delivery for over 500 years. The Hapsburg Empire’s first Postmaster General, Franz von Taxis, was given the exclusive right to deliver the royal mail in 1506. (Incidentally, and this is true, mail was only delivered to paying customers. You didn't get your mail if you didn't pay von Taxis.) Dog sleds were used to deliver mail in the Yukon Territory.
After half a millennium, Canada’s mail delivery service has been thwarted by a kitty.
This is a quote from the Winnipeg Free Press: “Canada's postal system has stopped delivering mail to a home in Winnipeg, Manitoba, after a mail carrier was scared away by a "very threatening cat…"
The Very Threatening Cat, whose name is Shadow, is eight years old and has been declawed. Shadow’s owner says that Shadow "likes to eat and sleep and cuddle.”
The mail carrier’s fear is understandable. What could be more frightening than a sleepy cuddly declawed kitty?
More from the Winnipeg Free Press: “A Canada Post spokeswoman said the agency was concerned about the safety of its carriers, although it hoped for an amicable solution."
Canada's postal system hopes to negotiate an agreement with a cat amicably?
A word of advice for Canada’s postal system: negotiate with the cat in good faith, but get the agreement in writing. If the settlement includes a catnip mouse, your mail carrier may escape relatively unharmed. That is as amicable as it is going to get. If you wait too long, the cuddly declawed kitty may be asleep, and where does that leave the mail carrier?
The mail we received today is addressed to a lady who lives in a bungalow two blocks away. We have never met her but because we have her mail, we now know that she reads The New Yorker and prefers John and Kira’s chocolates. We will deliver her mail this evening, after we feed the cat, and we expect that we will like her. John and Kira’s are really good chocolates.
Almost forgot to mention that the mayor of Winnipeg, home of the Very Threatening Kitty, is Sam Katz.
