Monty’s good deed

WHY did Epsom hospital have a hissy fit over the fact that a stray cat called Monty repaid the kindness shown to it with top-notch mousing (Mail)?

A cat is not a plague-ridden rodent that spreads disease. The idea of a hospital being a place of absolute cleanliness is idealistic. Staff, patients and visitors mean hundreds of people every day enter a hospital with goodness knows what on their clothes and shoes. I expect they are far dirtier than any cat that spends all day washing itself.

Everyone knows an animal’s company is good medicine. My mother had blood poisoning and was in isolation in hospital, but every day I took in one of her cats for a visit. She got better much faster than expected. BRIDGET CHOUTOV, Chichester, W. Sussex.