Cats of Tauranga: Enough mice, time for a birdie

Pete the Tauranga Golf Club cat at home on a golf cart. Photo/SUPPLIED

Cats of Tauranga is an occasional feature focusing on local kitties with interesting stories to tell. This week, Stuart Whitaker met two cats with a great handicap.

Feline friends greet players at the end of their rounds at Tauranga Golf Club.

Sometimes they head out on to the course to keep players company. And sometimes they just do their own thing.

The two cats -- Birdie, who is a ginger female, and Pete a tabby male -- were bought to solve a problem, mice.

Now, if they're not part of the furniture, they are certainly often seen on it.

"We got them from the SPCA," says club manager Michelle Towersey.

"We got them about two and a half years ago. We had a mouse problem -- members were seeing them in the light fittings."

Bay of Plenty Golf chief executive Chris McAlpine went to the SPCA and came back saying if the club bought a cat, he would get one too, so they would each have company.

Pete was named after a well-liked member, Pete Anderson, who died the week he arrived at the club as a kitten.

He is a bit of a ladies' man and makes a beeline for a lap when the ladies come into the clubhouse after a round.

Birdie joins Janice Jeffs (left) and Sandra Cooney as they fill in their scorecards. Photo/SUPPLIED

"He also hops in a cart and rides away 'til he's had enough, then jumps out," she says.

"When he was a kitten he used to hop in the [golf] bags and ride in them."

They are also not above chasing players' golf balls around on the practice green just outside the clubhouse.

The cats come and go as they please through a cat door and the club's alarm system has had to be made pet-friendly.

- Do you know of a cat with an interesting story? Email news@baynews.co.nz with your quirkiest feline fables and we may feature them.