RECENTLY, the control of grey squirrels has received much coverage – but it seems only fair to record that squirrels have other predators than man.

For instance, when my daughter started at New College Hall, Cambridge, in 1998, she found that New Hall, like many other colleges, had a college cat.

In this case, a handsome ginger tom called Sam.

Sam was well known for the relentless guerilla war he carried on against the local grey squirrel population. Indeed, the expression “five a day” is believed to arise from his activities. Such was his fame that he was sometimes catnapped by students of nearby colleges and only released after days in luxurious captivity.

Although Sam went to the great cattery in the sky in August 2003, his life and times were immortalised in the book, The College Cats of Oxford and Cambridge, published in the late 1990s.

It seems fair to assume that when it came to grey squirrels Sam and the Prince of Wales – who last week called for them to be exterminated to save Britain’s native reds – were as one.

Martin Birtle, Billingham.